Liquid milk producers being forced to switch to manufactured sector

Áilín Quinlan meets West Cork dairy farmers disillusioned by the squeeze on their share of retail price.

FARMER Vivian Buttimer’s family has been farming cattle in Ballinascarthy in West Cork since the 17th century. Several generations of Buttimers have been liquid milk producers, a way of life which has been handed down from father to son.

And up to recently, Vivian (aged 46) was no exception. He has always produced fresh milk at Ballinascarthy, the village famed as the ancestral home from which the family of car genius Henry Ford emigrated to the USA.