Parkduv Limited has one of those farmyards that, when you drive in, you know without talking to anyone high standards, quality and cleanliness are high on the agenda.

The Downing farm has, for a long time, been associated with quality product and, as the farm has grown, the quality has been maintained, if not improved.

The business achieved overall winner in the Pharmacia UpJohn Quality Award over 20 years ago and, to this day, the procedures around maintaining quality are top-class.

Kevin and Bernie are farming in partnership with farm manager Tom Carr, who has been farming with the Downings for over 35 years.

Farm manager and partner Tom Carr explains how to do it to Maeve O’Connor, Dairygold, (back to camera) and the Quality Milk Awards judges.

Kevin’s late dad Michael was very much involved on the farm with Tom, which allowed Kevin the chance to work with the ICBF in Bandon.

In total, over 90ha are farmed. The herd is currently ranked just outside the top 20 on herd EBI, with an average of €169 for the herd.

For a number of years, the farm would have produced liquid milk, but they decided to opt out of that six years ago. A 16-unit Dairymaster plant was built in 1997 and, in 2014, two more units were added, along with cluster removers.

Cows are treated very much on an individual basis and it’s fair to say the Downings are prepared to push more labour hours at maintaining quality.

The preparation routine for milking shows exactly this. Cows are pre-sprayed on entering the parlour and then wiped dry with a clean disposable towel prior to cluster attachment.

The first step in the plant-washing routine is the plant is rinsed with 200 litres of cold water. This is allowed run to waste and then a solution of detergent and 120 litres is circulated for 10 minutes and run to waste. On alternate mornings, a hot wash descale is carried out using 120 litres of water at 70°C.

Milk recording is a tool Tom and Kevin are both passionate about. The herd is milk recorded every six weeks. As Tom said: “It helps us identify underperforming cows, track SCC of each cow and identify repeat poor-quality milk offenders.”

Parkduv Farm is in safe hands and I am sure will continue to deliver top results long into the future.