As winners of the 2014 Dairy Farmer of the Year award, the Dwan family from Thurles, Co Tipperary, opened their farm to the public on Thursday.

Over 350 farmers attended the event, which was organised by Teagasc and the National Dairy Council (NDC)/Kerrygold. The main topic was milk quality and visitors got a full run-down on the practices adopted by Eddie, Ann and Thomas Dwan that made them national champions.

The Dwans are milking 115 cows supplying milk to Centenary Thurles cooperative. Last year, average somatic cell count was 103,000 and average total bacterial count was 10,000, well below the target levels of 200,000 and 30,000 respectively.

Meticulous hygiene, attention to detail and making full use of milk recording were all credited with having excellent results.

In 2010, average cell count was 260,000. In 2011, the Dwans started milk recording. This allowed them to identify the high cell count cows. Some of the highest cell count cows were then culled.

Regular milk recording now allows the Dwans to identify the high cell count cows and manage these differently. They are identified by tape on their legs and are usually milked last but if they are not milked last then the clusters are dipped in paracetic acid between milkings to avoid the spread of infection from one cow to the next.

David Gleeson from Teagasc Moorepark outlined the steps farmers can take to minimise the chlorine and thermoduric residues in milk. Speaking at the forum, Michael Holohan from Bord Bia said that about 6,000 farmers have now been audited under the Bord Bia Dairy Quality Assurance Scheme with the vast majority passing. He said a big stumbling block for many farmers was the paperwork, with insufficient records being maintained.