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Antrim dairy farmer Steven Houston was crowned the overall winner of Dale Farm’s milk quality improvement awards at the Balmoral Show.
Six Dale Farm suppliers were recognised for their efforts in enhancing milk quality across three different categories.
Farming 170 cows at Glarryford, Steven operates an autumn/winter-calving system using Friesian, Norwegian Red and Danish/New Zealand Jersey genetics.
As well as winning the overall competition, he was placed first in the ‘Over 1m litres’ category, pipping Cookstown farmer Robin McAdoo to the top spot.
The new entrant category was won by Cathal Nugent, Donaghmore, who established a herd of 80 Fleckvieh cows in 2020. Runner up was John Morton, Armagh.
The final category was for farmers producing under 1m litres, with first place going to Ballymoney farmer Marshall Patton, who operates a Jersey herd on a robotic system. Runner up was Bill Mehaffy, Strabane.
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