Cookhouse Creamery

The Cookhouse Factory was purchased by the Just Milk Group in 2018 out of the Dairybelle Liquidation and the company was named Cookhouse Creamery, honouring the name of the factory that was established in 1926 on the same site.

Historically, the Just Milk Group provided all of its milk to Dairybelle, who in turn provided whey from the cheese making process to the Golden Valley and Cookhouse Piggeries, owned by Number Two Piggeries who are a key partner in Just Milk. The piggeries are situated on the Just Milk dairy farms and the manure from the piggeries is spread on the dairy pastures as a natural fertilizer.

This system worked well for all parties involved until Dairybelle went into default on their way to liquidation.

Production re-commenced in July 2018 with many of Dairybelle’s previous staff who had worked at the Cookhouse Plant for 24 years.

Since inception, our factory has undergone continuous improvement and evolution. We have expanded our product range from cheddar only to include mozzarella, gouda, butter and flavoured butter.

A focus on quality has seen us recognized at the SA Dairy Awards for our cheddar and our flavoured butter. Our mozzarella won a prestigious Qualite Award in 2023.

Cookhouse Creamery market their cheese primarily into bulk, curd and value-add markets all over the country and also service our local areas with delivered product. In 2022 we opened our Factory Shop so that anyone driving past Cookhouse on the N10 can stop in and stock up on both our products and the products of our customers who use our cheese, butter, and cream in their products. Through the factory shop, we offer discounted fresh milk to our community.

The Cookhouse factory can process 220,000 litres a day and is currently supplied by three Just Milk farms only, being Riverside, Dalfreuch and Leeway.

In 2023 we started bringing in milk from Just Milk’s newest dairy development in Khowa/Elliot. With two more dairies nearby in a tiny town called Ida, we decided to embark on the daunting journey of building a second factory from scratch on Mountain View Dairy Farm. Khowa Creamery commenced production in June 2024, processing milk from Mountain View and Ida Dairies. We produce only bulk cheddar in Elliot, operating the factory as a satellite unit to Cookhouse.

Both our factories operate within 5km of where the Just Milk cows are being milked on pasture-based systems and our jersey cows produce milk of exceptionally high butterfat and protein. It is our job at the factories to turn this high-quality milk into the best cheese and butter you can find anywhere in the country and our track record shows we are giving this a really good crack!

Drink milk. Eat cheese.