Northern Irish milk wins top Irish quality award
A Northern Ireland dairy farm has won the Lakeland Dairies Supreme Milk Quality Award from among over 2,000 milk producers, north and south, supplying a total milk pool of 1.2 billion litres to the company.
Seamus and Gerard Quinn, Ardboe, county Tyrone won the Lakeland Dairies Supreme Milk Quality Award and also won the overall Northern Ireland Milk Quality Award.
The overall Northern Ireland Runners-Up were Keith and Robin Crawford, Cookstown, also county Tyrone.
The awards were presented at a special ceremony by the Irish minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, together with Lakeland Dairies chairman Alo Duffy, chief executive, Michael Hanley and the board of Lakeland Dairies.
In the category for New Entrants to Dairy Farming, Raymond, James and Graham Harrison, Hillsborough, county Down won awards for exceptional milk quality.
Winning a milk quality award is an exceptional achievement. The awards publicly recognise the achievements of Lakeland Dairies milk suppliers who are committed to efficiency and quality in all aspects of their milk production.
Lakeland Dairies, one of Ireland's leading milk processors, operates across 15 counties on a cross border basis. Farmers from counties Cavan, Monaghan, Offaly, Westmeath, Down and Tyrone received awards for Excellence in Milk Production at this year's event which is the highlight of the dairying calendar.
Farming at Ardoe, county Tyrone, the Quinn family received the ultimate accolade for Supreme Milk Quality.
Lakeland Dairies Chairman Alo Duffy said: "The global demand for food will continue to increase over the next thirty years. Having access to natural and wholesome dairy products, made using sustainable methods, will become increasingly important in the future and this island is very well placed to meet this increasing global demand.
"Our green image, our environment and our pasture based production model are exceptionally important and this is most certainly a priority for Lakeland Dairies. As a dairy processor we need to be able to provide a continuous level of reassurance to our customers about our products. We simply couldn't do that without the commitment of all our producers whose dedication and achievements are strongly exemplified by the winners of our milk quality awards."
Lakeland chief executive Michael Hanley said: "Agriculture and dairying will be key engines of economic progress as we continue to grow our food exports in the future. Lakeland Dairies is committed to the achievement of dairy industry scale, efficiency and competitiveness, for the long term benefit of producers and rural communities.
"With the strategic investments we have made, we are able to process as much milk as our suppliers can provide. We have a strong presence in international markets, exporting nearly 100 per cent of our output, including major volumes from our foodservice manufacturing site and Global Logistics Centre in Newtownards, county Down. We have built a name for quality and reliability on a worldwide basis. The winners here understand that requirement. We could not be successful without the total quality commitment of all our producers. These awards are a tribute to excellence in farming, and they are exemplary of the very high quality milk suppliers who we are fortunate to have in Lakeland Dairies."
Lakeland Dairies is a farmer owned dairy processing co-operative with operations across 15 counties on a cross border basis. Lakeland collects and processes over 1.2 Billion litres of local farm produced milk each year into a wide range of value-added dairy foodservice and food ingredient products which it exports worldwide.
SUPREME MILK QUALITY WINNERS: Pictured (l - r) are: David Gunn, Easyfix; Michael Hanley, Group CEO, Lakeland Dairies; Seamus Quinn; Minister Creed; Margaret Quinn, Colin Kelso, Vice-Chairman and Alo Duffy, Chairman of Lakeland Dairies.