Teagasc and Carbery teamed up to host a farm walk on Tuesday near Innishannon, outside Bandon in west Cork on the farm of Nigel Daunt of Coolcullitha. Bandon Co-op supplier Daunt was crowned Carbery milk quality award winner at a prize giving ceremony in early July.

Daunt is a new entrant to dairy after moving out of suckler cows in 2017 when he took over the farm from his parents Robert and Dorothy. Daunt currently milks 65 cows on 106ac. The farm has an eight-unit herringbone milking parlour, with cows producing around 5,000l (400kg milk solids/year).

Daunt won the Bandon and overall prize, while other winners included Barryroe suppliers Jerry and Carmel Keohane, Clonakilty, Drinagh suppliers William and Patricia O’Donovan, and Lisavaird suppliers Christopher and Hannah McCarthy from near Union Hall.

Farm walk

Topics covered during the walk included milk quality, farm performance, converting from beef to dairy and growing sustainably amongst others.

Daunt hopes to go forward for the national Quality Milk Awards next year .

National awards

The finalists for the 2019 NDC/Ornua Quality milk awards will be profiled in the coming weeks in the Irish Farmers Journal and the overall winner announced in early October.

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