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KILDARE FARMER IS CREAM OF THE CROP

- National Category Award to West Cork Farmer -
NATIONAL DAIRY COUNCIL QUALITY MILK AWARDS

Ireland’s top dairy farmer for 2009 is Brochan Cocoman from Kilwarden, Kill, Naas, Co Kildare. Brochan is the winner of the National Dairy Council Quality Milk Awards. A supplier of liquid milk to Glanbia, he was presented with the NDC Perpetual Cup and a cheque for €5,000 by MEP Mairead McGuinness at a national awards ceremony in Citywest, Co Dublin today (Tuesday 6th October 2009).

A national category award was also presented by the National Dairy Council to manufacturing milk supplier Michael O’Donovan from Gurranes, Ballineen, Co Cork, who supplies milk to Lisavaird Co-op.

National judges for the NDC Quality Milk Awards - Professor Paddy Wall, Associate Professor of Public Health at UCD; Dr David Gleeson, Milk Quality Research, Teagasc; and Jack Kennedy, Dairy Editor, Irish Farmers Journal – also commendated four farmers who had been short listed as national finalists in the 2009 NDC Awards. They are:

• Richard Claxton, Colt, Ballyroan, Portlaoise, Co Laois (supplying milk to Glanbia)
• Gordan Kingston, Tawnies, Clonakilty, Co Cork (supplying Clona Dairy Products)
• Sean & Goretti Leahy, Corran, Waterfall, Co Cork (supplying Bandon Co-op)
• Cathal Moran, Curraghlane, Skeaghvasteen, via Borris, Co Kilkenny (supplying Glanbia)

The NDC Quality Milk Awards help to build awareness about the Irish dairy farmers who are behind dairy brands in the Republic of Ireland; and create an opportunity to showcase to consumers the top quality of dairy farming in the Republic of Ireland.

NDC Chief Executive Helen Brophy thanked all of the dairy co-ops who took time to select and submit nominations for this year’s awards. “The work of the National Dairy Council can only succeedwork, if we have a top class product that consumers have confidence in – and fortunately we do,” said Helen Brophy.

“There are of course regulatory requirements and criteria in place in the context of farming and standards of processing milk. But this Award programme allows us to seek out and to identify the highest standards of milk production – and it allows us to reward the effort that surely most go hand in hand with it. The NDC Quality Milk Awards allow us to identify excellence – the type of excellence which serves as a top class example to others. And Tthese Awards allow us to reward that excellence.”

The Awards also provide a platform at a challenging time for the dairy sector, for co-ops to highlight to their own suppliers the technical requirements, standards and techniques which drive top quality milk production.

What the Judges Were Looking For

Congratulating the winners, Dr David Gleeson from Teagasc, gave an overview of what the judges had been looking for. Finalists were selected based on their individual milk quality results for 2008 and 2009. Farms were ranked for total bacterial counts, somatic cell counts and milk composition. The six finalists were subsequently visited and their farms inspected.

“As the milking facilities are crucial to the production of quality milk we put considerable emphasis on our farm visits on the appearance of the dairy and milking parlour in terms of cleanliness, brightness, storage of items like detergents, cleaning procedures and milking procedures,” said Dr. Gleeson.

“The approach roads to the parlour and general farm yard appearance were considered and a detailed analysis of the ICBF records for each farm were undertaken, .” said Mr. Gleeson.

Dr Gleeson said that milk recording, daily hot washes, very clean facilities, teat preparation, post milking disinfection and good animal identification were features of all of the top farms visited. “The winners stand out for their attention to detail. There record keeping is excellent and knowledge and enthusiasm for there work was obvious.”

National Dairy Council Chairman, Dominic Cronin, offered heartfelt congratulations to all of the finalists and winners.

“We are truly delighted that the National Dairy Council has been able to support these Awards. The Quality Milk Awards programme ran very successfully in Ireland for nearly 2 decades until it lost its main sponsor, with the trophy described as the “Sam Maguire of Farming” by Alan Gillis when he won the former title in 1986,” said Mr Cronin. “I would like to think of this new National Dairy Council perpetual trophy, as the new Sam Maguire of Farming. Our winners should be very proud of their achievements and of the standards that they have set.”

- ENDS -

 

Editorial Footnote: Notes about each of the top 6 farms are listed below

Date: 6th October, 2009

Issued by: Antonina Ni Dhuinn, Progress Communications, Tel: 01-2766117 nina@progresspr.ie

The overall winners of the 2009 National Dairy Council Quality Milk Awards
Brochan and Lelia Cocoman, Kilwarden, Kill in Co Kildare, supplies of liquid milk supplier to Glanbia.

• This farm has demonstrated a winning formula for the production of high quality milk, all year round.
• The family have a high input, high output system and achieve excellent results. The farm is 180 acres, with about 100 cows. Although the cows were out grazing when the judges called, the herd are supplemented all year with brewers grains, maize and meal feeding. Milk production has trebled from 3,300 kg/cow (730 gallons per cow) when milk was first produced, to over 10,800 kg/cow (2,300 gallons) per cow in 2008.
• This farmer keeps a very tight handle on milk recording results, keeps teats in good condition and has yards, parlour and cubicles very clean. He has a 12 unit herringbone and is careful to wipe each teat with a disposable paper towel at each milking.
• Any cows with high-ish cell counts or suspected of having a touch of mastitis are milked last at every milking to prevent any possible contamination of other cows. This farmer wears gloves at milking and uses an iodine teat dip all year.
• Plant is washed firstly with warm water, rinsed with detergent and hot water and then rinsed out with cold water.
• A large proportion of the farm’s milk is lower than 100 SCC, with SCCs very rarely going over 150,000. In June 2009 the average SCC for the 97 cows milked was 67,000, with average SCC results for the last 11 milk recordings at 120,000. Protein was 3.24% and fat was 3.74%. TBC is excellent, with most of the milk supplied less than 5,000.
• This is quite a young herd, with 30 heifers introduced in 2008, which also helps cell count. All in all, a super farm, producing top quality milk all year round.
  
• Brochan is also very well known amongst pedigree Holstein breeders and on the pedigree show circuit, regularly competing in Millstreet, Virginia and Balmoral.
• Brochan and Lelia have four sons - Michael, Brochan Junior, Joseph and Philip - young men well known in GAA football circles for their role in minor matches, often wearing a Kildare county jersey.

The winners of the NDC Quality Milk Awards - National Category Award, going to a manufacturing milk supplier Michael & Noreen O’Donovan from Gurranes, Ballineen, Co Cork, suppliers to Lisavaird Co-op

• This farm supplies to Lisavaird Co-op where Eleanor Hayes and her team were the nominators. This is a 100 acre farm in West Cork, with about 58 cows milked. Average SCC for the last 11 milk recordings work out at 121,000 cells with an average milk yield at 26 kg/cow and 3.58% protein, with 3.73% fat.
• This farmer operates a spring calving system supplying no milk in December and January. It takes one hour to milk. Teats are washed and dried if dirty and in the winter if they are indoor, are dry wiped. The washing procedure is completely automated. The automatic plant washer goes through its steps at the push of a button with probes and settings to make sure the right amounts of water and detergents are used every day. The collected yard is scraped down to minimise water use.
• This farmer does his own AI and has used a mixture of British Friesian, New Zealand and Holstein Friesian sires to achieve a compact cow delivering an average herd yield of 6,100 kg (1,360 gallons). His view is that if you get the cow right, it’s down to good hygienic practices in the parlour – like washing and teat spraying – to deliver good milk quality.
• Michael O’Donovan won the Carbery Milk Quality competition earlier this year. Michael also holds the view that good fertility impacts on milk quality – on the basis that its effectiveness allows him to select out cows for culling each year for reasons like bad feet, poor udders and high cell counts. Other than that, he simply says that his wonderful milk quality is about doing the simple things the right way.

National Finalist in the 2009 NDC Quality Milk Awards
Richard Claxton and his wife Valerie from Ballyroan, Portlaoise in Co Laois - suppliers to Glanbia,

• A 98 acre farm in Co Laois, milking 44 cows with an average yield of 34kg/cow at 3.48% protein and 3.33% fat. Nominated by milk advisor Donal Corkery, this farmer supplies Spring milk to Glanbia, usually drying off from November, December and January.
• This farmer is adamant that milk recording has a bigt part to play on his farm. He uses disposable paper towels to dry wipe teats, cows showing signs of clots are milked out into the dumpline and treated. Cows’ teats are sprayed after milking all year round. Dry cows are housed in cubicles with mats and paper is also spread on the cubicle mats to keep them dry.
• Total milk sales in 2008 at approximately 285,000 litres, with SCC results for the last 11 milk recordings averaging at 97,000 and figures – for instance in June 2009 averaging 56,000. TBC was in the single figures for 5 out of the 9 months during which milk was supplied last year.
• This farm was depopulated in 2001 with BSE but the herd has been built back up and is relatively young, which is a plus. Richard is a member of the Laois Offaly Friesian Breeders and actively monitors how different bull daughters perform in his herd. He is keen on records and usee the Kingswood Herd Management package which allows him to pull out the production history of his cows at the touch of a button. He competes in the National Herds Competition and out of the 45 cows he had milking when the judges called, he had 5 ‘Excellent’ and 18 ‘VG’ cows.
  

National Finalist in the 2009 NDC Quality Milk Awards
Gordan & Gladys Kingston, Tawnies, Clonakilty, Co Cork, suppliers to Clona Dairy Products.

• A liquid milk supplier to Clona Dairies, nominated by Brian Whelton and his team. He farms 127 acres and milks an average of 70 cows, average milk yield is 30kg/cow and 3.51% protein and 3.78% fat.
• The family pay particular attention to washing the milking plant correctly. After every milking the plant is rinsed with cold water first, then the 12 unit plant is rinsed with hot water at 75 degrees using BFSwith chlorine plus 250mls ofand hypochloride. When the bulk tank is empty it is also washed out with water at 75 degrees usingwith BFS.
• Proper management at drying off, culling poor performers, managing health and keeping stress levels low are all features of this farm.
• Milk recording is an important management tool on this farm, actively used to identify an possible problem cows. Clona test for TBCs and SCCS 3 times per month with annual average TBCs at 7000 and SCCs averaging 109,000. As judge Jack Kennedy has said ‘ milking cows all year round and achieving exceptional results is now easy – but this farm pays special attention to detail and it is paying off in spades.”

National Finalist in the NDC Quality Milk Awards
Sean Leahy and his wife Goretti from Corran, Waterfall, near Cork, suppliers to Bandon Co-op.

• A 76 acre farm in Cork, milking about 50 cows with an average yield of 25kg/cow at 3.38% protein and 4.07% fat. Nominated by Leigh Ann Tobin and the team at Bandon Co-op, this farmer supplies liquid milk to Bandon.
  
  Plant is washed with cold water, then detergent with a hot wash every second day. Sean has a two stage plate cooler to drop the temperature of the milk very quickly. TBC is excellent on the farm with most of the milk supplied less than 10,000 and SCC rarely going over 150,000. In June 2009 milk recording shows SCC at 83,000.
• Sean believes that his habits of attention to detail, using his milk recording information and plant washing routines are important contributors to his milk quality. He works closely with his co-op, sampling cows which may be suspect on milk quality. Sean and his family have shown an exemplary commitment to maintaining quality on their farm. The family rarely miss a milking in order to maintain the best possible quality. Attention to detail and cleanliness are absolute on this farm.

National Finalist in the NDC Quality Milk Awards –
Cathal Moran, Curraghlane, Skeaghvasteen, Borris on the border of Carlow/Kilkenny, a supplier to Glanbia.

• A Spring milk supplier to Glanbia nominated by Michael Kirwan and his team at Ballyragget. He farms 97 hectares and milks an average of 77 cows, average milk yield is 22kg/cow with 3.47% protein and 4.24% fat.
• TBC was in the single figures for most of the year. Average SCC results for the last 11 milk recordings worked out at 162,000. Gloves are worn when milking, this farmer pre-sprays teats during the 10 day high risk period after calving and teats are dried with paper after spraying. He starting pre-spraying before putting on clusters this year and finds it helps reduce mastitis. Milking machine is correctly washed, grass is good quality and the herd is managed well.
• Cathal is achieving superb quality on his farm despite the fact that he is in a growth phase, with new facilities, growing cow numbers and seasonal calving. A member of the Teagasc Grass Roots discussion and grass measurement group, Cathal is very keen on grass measurement, aiming to produce the best quality milk from grass.