The Milk Industry in Northern Ireland

Abstract

opment. Commercial milk production, as reflected in the sale of butter, has been a feature of the Irish economy since the Late Middle Ages. Regulations forbidding the illegal export of butter from Ireland were made in the latter part of the sixteenth century, probably to counteract the trade between Ireland and the continent in this and other livestock products.1 The interplay of political and economic forces implied in such regulations has been typical of conditions affecting commercial milk production in Ireland since then. The present paper describes the organization and status of milk production in Northern Ireland at the present time, and attempts to account for the features described. The points that should be emphasized are, first, the deep historic foundations of this branch of agriculture, second, the form of the production by many small farmers, third, the organizational aspects of processing and distribution, so impor-