Evidence suggests milk processing methods were in use 8,000 years ago

FARMERS have been working the land of Ireland for 5,000 years, but recent evidence suggests cows and goats were being milked in the Near East and the Balkans some 3,000 years earlier.

Scientists have found fatty traces on ancient pottery that showed they were used to store dairy products.

The findings also suggest that milk processing was taking place as long ago as the seventh millennium BC.