Top-quality milk award for show exhibitor
A team of judges looking for Ireland’s best milk quality results for 2008 and 2009 found them on the farm at Kill in Co Kildare of Brochan and Lelia Cocoman.
For years they have been impressing the judges at the dairy cattle shows.
Now their €5,000 national win shows that top class production goes hand in hand with showing cows.
They have been regulars at the Dairy Show in Millstreet, showing the junior champion there in 2008, and 2004, for example.
Brochan Cocoman showed the reserve champion in this year’s prestigious Baileys cow championship. He was one of the four exhibitors who won the coveted inter-country group prize for Ireland in the European dairy championship at Brussels in 2004.
Supplying liquid milk to Glanbia, the Cocomans practice high input, high output farming with about 100 cows on 180 acres.
Cows are supplemented all year with brewers grains, maize and meal feeding.
Milk production has trebled from 3,300 kg per cow (730 gallons) when milk was first produced to over 10,800 kg (2,300 gallons) in 2008.
The average SCC for the last 11 milk recordings was 120,000. Protein was 3.24% and fat was 3.74%, and the TBC is excellent. “A super farm, producing top quality milk all year round,” was the judges’ verdict
* 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.
