A Laois farm family is enjoying an enthusiastic response to its fresh milk vending machine located at the Solas Eco Garden Centre, Portarlington.
Micheál Finlay, his wife Cora and his father Liam, run the dairy farm at Lea, Portarlington which is less than 500 metres from the Solas Eco Garden shop. They milk 100 cows and supply Tirlán, formerly Glanbia.
Their venture ‘Moo Cow Fresh Milk’ comes at a time when more farmers are looking at ways of diversifying their farms and adding value to their milk.
There is also a greater focus on sustainability and the need to support dairy farmers to get a fair income for their produce. This has led to an increase in the number of milk vending machines around the country.
The trend also reflects the growing consumer interest in sourcing food and drinks produced on their doorsteps.
“We started planning back in September 2021 and opened the milk vending in October 2022 after constructing a pasteurisation facility on the farm,” explains Micheál, who’ll be well known to many through his exploits with the O’Dempsey’s football team.
“Here we pasteurise our milk after milking and bring it to our self-service vending machine in Solas Eco Garden shop, drastically reducing the food miles of our milk.”
“We had to go through the planning process and the building works which took us a bit of time as we did most of the work ourselves.
“We always wanted to supply our milk locally due to our proximity to the town of Portarlington and surrounding areas.
“We have had a great reaction and the community has really got behind us and supported us In the future we aim to supply the local coffee shops and restaurants,” he said.
“One of the main drivers for us in getting into milk vending was to try reduce the use of plastics.
“Our reusable glass bottle has been a huge hit,” Micheál said.
“They come in one litre or 500ml sizes and we fill them with either fresh cold whole milk or a milkshake which could be chocolate, strawberry, banana or vanilla.
“Moo Cow Fresh Milk is real milk with no additives, full of nourishment and protein which comes from our grass-fed cows, grazing on green pastures in Portarlington.”
More information can be found on Instagram Moo_Cow_Fresh_Milk
