Scientist duo winners help cut milk costs
Impressed by the value of their winning project — The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production — the Irish Dairy Board invited the Kinsale Community School students to visit the Kerrygold Company, in Leek, Staffordshire, in England during their mid-term break.
At Leek, the Kerrygold Company packs more than 70,000 tonnes of cheese per year for the major British multiples and the Kerrygold brand. A company spokesperson said the visit enabled Liam and John to see at first hand just how important their contribution will be to Irish dairy farmers and the dairy industry as a whole. The visit included a presentation on cheese grading and an introduction to the accredited laboratory. Both were very impressed by the innovative facilities at the plant where the carbon footprint was cut by 15%.
The judges in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition entry described Liam and John’s milk testing project as ‘utterly practical and brilliant in its simplicity’. The students had deduced that if a small amount of detergent was mixed with a fresh sample of milk, the mixture becomes progressively more viscous as the somatic cell content of the milk rises.
They will represent Ireland at the 21st European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Paris next September.
