Sustainable Dairy

Sustainably producing the highest quality cheese

Our Farmers are our Shareholders

We’re a co-operative with a responsibility to the farmers and communities of West Cork, both now and into the future. We return value to our farmers via the price we pay for the milk they produce and encourage sustainable farming practices so that farms are handed down from generation to generation.

Our success is dependent on our respect for our environment and the communities in which we operate. We have over 1,200 milk suppliers, all close to our processing plant in Ballineen.

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Learn more about the Carbery farmers

Farm Zero C

We work in partnership with our farmer suppliers to explore positive ways to make dairy farming more environmentally sustainable.

Through our work on the Farm Zero C Project, we aim to demonstrate that a climate-neutral dairy farm is possible.

Our Carbery Greener Dairy Farms™ programme provides support to help our farmer suppliers to reduce energy use and carbon emissions.

We also support our farmers to protect and enhance the biodiversity on their land, reduce on-farm risks to water courses and support animal health and welfare.

Verified Grass Fed, for Quality you can Rely on

Carbery’s cheese is made with milk from Grass Fed cows.

Our outdoor grazing, extensive grass-based farming system provides us with the perfect environment for sustainable dairy farming. Influenced by the Gulf Stream, our mild temperate climate, plentiful rainfall, and rich deep soils give us the longest grass growing season in the Northern Hemisphere, with cows outdoors for up to 300 days each year.

Our cheese is made with milk that is 95% grass fed on a fresh weight basis, as independently verified by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, ensuring the sustainability and quality our consumers expect.

Sustainability Ambitions and Achievements

Sustainability and social responsibility are central to our business mode. We process 600 million litres of milk a year from our shareholder farms and produce cheese year-round in our bespoke, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. This combination of high quality milk with cheesemaking expertise means our customers can rely on us for sustainable supply.

We aim to be carbon neutral by
2035 across all our manufacturing
sites through the decarbonisation
of our existing energy sources.
We procure 100% renewable electricity through a green tariff at our processing facility in Ballineen
We reduced our emissions intensity across the group by 4.8% between 2019 and 2020.
Carbon Footprint Chart

Reducing our Carbon Emissions on Farm

Ireland’s dairy farms have the lowest carbon footprint for milk in the EU. Our efficient natural grass-fed dairy system is also a low water user, taking typically six litres to produce every litre of milk, much lower than more intensive systems.

But we know there’s much more we can do, with over 90% of the carbon emissions associated with one block of cheese occurring at the farm level. The work to reduce these farm emissions is already yielding results. Carbon Navigator data assembled and calculated by Bord Bia through the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS) shows that our farmers reduced their carbon footprint by 4.2% in 2020 compared to 2019. This encouraging trend is expected to continue.

Animal Welfare

With low stocking densities and average milk yields, Ireland’s traditional family farms have an enviable reputation for animal care and stockmanship. This allows us to source the highest quality milk from our farmer owners, who have been farming this way for generations.

We support Animal Health Ireland (AHI) to ensure high welfare standards and effective disease control. Our milk is tested daily to ensure milk quality and continuously monitor animal health.

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Learn more about the milk that makes our great tasting cheese

Partnerships

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Contact Us

When you partner with us you have access to our experts in cheese research and development, along with experienced cheese makers and graders, culinary experts and marketing support to help accelerate your product development process and ensure a successful launch.

Carbery Group

Carbery, Ballineen, Co Cork, Ireland, P47 YW77

T: +353 (0)23 8822200

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A Leading International Sustainable Business

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