The Ornua-Tirlán ‘butter battle’ has split dairy farmer opinion down the middle, an Irish Farmers Journal reader survey has found.

Close to 280 milk suppliers were asked if they believed other Irish butter brands should compete with Kerrygold on the lucrative US market.

Some 51% of respondents maintained that other Irish butter brands should compete with Kerrygold in the US, while 49% said they should not.

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However, when the sample size was increased to include non-dairy farmers, support for Tirlán increased significantly.

Sixty-six percent of the total 1,068 farmers surveyed agreed that other Irish butter brands should compete with Kerrygold on the US market. Just 34%, or close to one-third, disagreed.

Seventy-eight percent of the survey respondents in Connacht agreed that other Irish butter brands should compete with Kerrygold in the US, 73% of those in Ulster and 65% in Leinster.

Munster was the only province where the concept of a Kerrygold Irish butter monopoly in the US enjoyed strong backing.

While 56% of Munster farmers agreed other Irish butter brands should compete with Kerrygold in the US market, 44% or those surveyed disagreed.

Tirlán’s decision to supply butter to US retail giant Costco for its private label brand has sparked a serious rift with Ornua which markets Kerrygold.