John and Margaret Greene are farming at Greenville near Callan in Co Kilkenny. Consistent and excellent are probably the two words that describe the milk quality records on this Kilkenny farm.

John had records up on the wall of the dairy showing the long-established track record of milk quality results. The manner in which the results were presented tells straight away about the attention to detail around this farm.

In 2014, 105 cows were milked, delivering almost 832,186 litres of milk and in 2015 this has increased to 150 cows milked from 122ha farmed in total.

John is a lover of cows and feels type traits are crucially important to have long-lasting cows. John pointed out a number of 9th lactation cows that were still classified as very good or excellent.

John has a 20-unit herringbone parlour. When milking is finished, the parlour is rinsed with 228 litres of cold water first, then a second rinse of 228 litres of lukewarm water.

The detergent wash follows with 228 litres of the detergent cycle, which uses 1.3 litres of De Laval Ultra product. That detergent cycle is then rinsed with two cold rinses.

The wash routine is on an automatic cycle so its consistently good as long as the detergent is kept topped up and monitored. A hot wash is used in the morning and a cold wash in the evening.

John is very strong on his farming ethos and he said: “My goal with farming is to produce milk and meat for people I will never know, at a level of quality equal to what I would present to my own family. This thinking underpins my view of why quality milk is paramount in our dairy enterprise and why we have won the Quality Milk Award in our Callan Co-op for four of the last five years.”

Farming system

In 2014 John Greene milked 105 cows and in 2015 he is milking 150 cows in all year round milk production supplying Callan Co-op. In total they are farming 122 hectares (301 acres) and milk delivered in 2014 was 832,186 litres at 3.90% fat and 3.31% protein.

Parlour

20-unit herringbone

SCC Results

Average 55,000 for 2014

TBC Results

Average 5,000 for 2014

Full list of Quality Millk Awards finalists' profiles