Longford farm family wins big in Lakelands milk quality awards
Farm families in Longford and Tyrone have been announced as Supreme Champions of the Lakeland Dairies Milk Quality Awards.
The Milk Quality Awards publicly recognise the achievements of Lakeland Dairies milk suppliers who are committed to quality in all aspects of their milk production.
Winning a milk quality award is a truly excellent achievement. The winners emerged from among 3,200 farm families across 16 counties who produce milk for the 1.9bn litres Lakeland Dairies milk pool.
The Supreme Champions of the awards are Eugene & Deirdre Fitzpatrick, Lisryan, Granard and Cyril Gibson, Beragh, Omagh, for the exceptionally high quality of milk they have produced on their farms throughout the past year.
The Fitzpatricks also took home the >500,000 litre producer category award in the Republic of Ireland, while the Gibsons are winners in the >1m litre producer category in Northern Ireland.
New Entrant
Recognising the achievements of new entrants to dairying, where Lakeland has welcomed over 350 new milk producers to the co-operative in recent years, Sean and Paul Murtagh, Rathconrath, were declared winners of the Republic of Ireland new entrant category while Bernard & Rory McKeever, Kilmore, Co Armagh, won the Northern Ireland new entrant category, for the high quality of their milk supplied to Lakeland Dairies.