Taste the Nation: How one man and his 250 goats produce two award-winning cheeses
Michael and Jenny Finegan with their daughters on their farm in Slane, Co Meath.
Third-generation farmer Michael Finegan started milking goats on his farm in Co Meath in 2008 and, despite a recession soon following, has since found himself supplying milk to major brands as well as producing his own award-winning varieties of cheese after identifying a gap in the market.
“I'm milking 250 goats here outside Slane. Shortly after I started, of course, the recession hit,” he says. “The milk price got a little bit volatile. I thought it would be a good idea if I put my milk into my own product. We thought about the different things to do with milk, like bottling it myself and selling it in the shops or do an ice cream or yogurt, but we settled on cheese. At the time, I saw a gap in the market: there was no blue goats cheese. So, I started off making that.”
Boyne Valley Cheese (boynevalleycheese.com) was born as a result of the economic crash and eight years later, Finegan saw an opportunity to further expand his range. Today he produces up to four tonnes of cheese annually from his family-run farm.
“In 2016, I revamped and upgraded and I fitted out one of the old stone buildings. I added more space, more facilities to develop a second cheese, which was a French-style tomme white goats cheese.
Finegan says he is always experimenting with new varieties of cheese and a third cheese is currently in development.
“The cheeses are Boyne Valley Blue and Boyne Valley Bán. At the moment I’m developing a third cheese, a harder, more mature white cheese. I’m always tinkering and trying new things. Every year I'll be using more and more of my milk for the cheese and eventually, I'll probably end up using all my milk. When I do that, I’ll think about expanding the goat herds. I’d like to get up to 400 goats.”
Half of Finegan’s goat milk is sent to Glenisk for use in their products and the remainder goes into producing his own cheeses. He spends much of his day working on the farm and says his family is very supportive.
“I'm the one full-time person, doing the farming and the cheese. My wife Jenny is a nurse in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Like a lot of nurses, she does shift work. When she's not in the hospital she is a great help here on the farm. My dad is semi-retired and he gives me a hand as well.”
A typical day sees Finegan working from dawn to dusk.
“I milk every day of the year. Like a lot of cow farmers, I have a spring and autumn herd. I start at 6am each morning and it takes about an hour and a half to milk them and another hour to clean up and feed them. In the middle of the day, I do general farm jobs. I start milking again at 3.30pm and I finish up around 6pm. I make cheese twice a week so on cheese-making days I’ll start an hour earlier. The beauty of the system I set up is that I’m finished by the time I start milking again in the evening time. I have a relief milker that comes to the farm a few times a week so that I can spend more time in the cheese room.”
A key element of Finegan’s marketing is in social media, and he’s not afraid to experiment with new platforms to promote his product.
“I do a fair bit on social media: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I've just stuck my toe in the water on TikTok, that seems to be where it's at now, it’s the new kid on the block.”
Finegan is proud of his farmhouse cheese and the family behind it.
“It’s very much a family operation and everything's done on the farm. We're very much a farmhouse cheese. We grow the grass, we milk the goats and we make this cheese all in one place. It's a good rural business. We’re an award-winning cheese business. For our Boyne Valley Bán, we got three stars in the Great Taste Awards a few years ago and we won Best Irish Cheese and the British Cheese Awards.”
Boyne Valley Cheese is available to buy across the country and it adorns cheese boards in hotels and restaurants nationwide too.
“A good chunk of the cheese goes to wholesalers for the food service area, like hotels and restaurants. I also supply wholesalers that put my cheese into Tesco. It’s also available in cheese shops, the likes of Sheridan’s Cheesemongers and quite a few independent cheese shops all around the country, as well as a few local food markets and shops.”
