Many dairy farmers won’t believe it but every single herd nominated for these national Animal Health Ireland (AHI) Cellcheck awards has an average somatic cell count (SCC) less than 72,000 for the year.

This figure has improved year on year from the 103,000 that was eligible in 2015.

This clear path of progress was spelled out very clearly at the start of the annual awards in Kilkenny by chief executive of AHI David Graham.

This is the fourth year the awards have taken place to recognise the farm businesses supplying milk with very low somatic cell counts (SCC).

Targets

David Graham opened proceedings by stating the industry targets.

He said: “The industry-agreed target is that 75% of the national milk pool would be less than 200,000 SCC by 2020. Already we are making great strides to achieving this figure.

"In order to qualify to get into this event in 2015, the highest eligible SCC figure was 103,000 cells/ml. This year, the figure is 72,000 cells/ml – that is the maximum average cell count here at these awards today so congratulations to all.”

50 years

FBD group chair Liam Herlihy also addressed the audience. He said: “ FBD is Ireland’s indigenous insurance company celebrating 50 years started by farmers for farmers and we are delighted to associated with this celebration. Today, we are celebrating the cream of the crop and so happy to be celebrating your success at top of the class.”

Over 500 farm businesses represented by over 1,000 invited guests from all over Ireland are gathering in Kilkenny today for the annual Cellcheck awards.