Council launches search to find the nation’s top dairy farmer

A SEARCH has been launched by the National Dairy Council through the country’s co-ops to find Ireland’s top dairy farmer.

The NDC Quality Milk Awards aim to identify and reward high standards of milk production among dairy farmers in the Republic.

Dairy co-ops are being invited to nominate their top manufacturing or liquid milk producers for the awards by June 22.

NDC chairman Dominic Cronin said the awards will help to build awareness about the dairy farmers who are behind Irish dairy brands.

“They will create an opportunity to showcase to consumers the top quality of dairy farming in the Republic,” he said.

Mr Cronin said from a farming perspective the awards will also provide a platform for co-ops to highlight to their own suppliers the technical requirements, standards and techniques which drive top quality milk production. He said consultation about the concept revealed strong support from the industry for the return of these awards, which ran very successful in the past.

Mr Cronin said the perpetual trophy for the overall winner was described as the “Sam Maguire of Farming” by Alan Gillis when he won it in 1986.

The overall winning farmers will receive 5,000 and the NDC Quality Milk Awards perpetual trophy. It will also be at the judges’ discretion to award category prizes.

Further information about the rules is published in the entry forms which have been distributed to the co-ops.

The judges will initially select a short-list of no more than six finalists based on the entry form details. They will then visit the farms of the finalists in order to select the overall national winner.