Now in its third year, the Kerry Agribusiness Milk Quality & Sustainability Awards are once again showcasing excellence in milk production across the southwest of Ireland.

Each of the farmers that have been visited by the judges were shortlisted based on their excellent milk quality and their low carbon footprint as measured at the most recent Bord Bia Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme audit.

However, there is more to sustainability than just carbon footprint and this is why the judges’ visit is always so important.

This year’s lineup of judges includes Mary-Anne Hurley from Munster Technological University; Ailish Moriarty, milk quality and sustainability co-ordinator with Kerry Agribusiness; Sean McCarthy, sustainability and services manager with Kerry Agribusiness and myself, Aidan Brennan representing the Irish Farmers Journal.

Sustainability parameters fall under a number of headings such as financial sustainability, work-life balance and environmental sustainability.

The judges had to make an assessment of these on each farm visited – not an easy task considering the high calibre of all the farms visited.

Even in the three years of judging the competition, there has been a notable change in the attitude and actions among farmers towards practices that improve sustainability. Practices such as low emissions slurry spreading, using protected urea and using low protein dairy feeds were once seen as novel ways to reduce a farm’s environmental footprint but are now standard practice on the competitor farms.

The average EBI of the herds in this year’s competition was €202 – much higher than the national average.

One of the things that stood out to me was the awareness that each of the finalists had in terms of their responsibility as farmers and custodians of the land. They were aware of what they needed to do to improve their environmental sustainability and were putting this knowledge into practice.

All spoke of the importance of managing biodiversity on the farm, with protecting habitat areas high on the agenda for all farmers.

It’s great to see farmers take on board the steps to improve sustainability. Programmes like the Kerry Evolve programme are no doubt playing their part towards increasing awareness of what needs to be done to improve sustainability.

Picking a winner will be no easy task. The chosen family will get the top prize of €2,500 but the greater honour will be their role as the ambassador for Kerry Agribusiness in terms of milk quality and sustainability for 2023 plus they will get to host an open day on their farm later in 2023.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on 8 August.