Ornua and the National Dairy Council are delighted to announce that the\u00a0Byrne Farm, from Dungarvan, Co. Waterford won the Lowest SCC Award at the 2025 NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards.<\/p>\n
The prestigious annual awards programme, now in its 16th year, saw 12 farming families from seven counties and 12 dairy co-operatives, celebrated for excellence in milk production and sustainable dairying at a special ceremony hosted at Lyrath Estate Hotel, Co. Kilkenny.<\/p>\n
Following their nomination by Tirl\u00e1n Co-op the Byrne Family took part in a comprehensive judging process that evaluated a range of the most important aspects of modern dairy farming. These areas of environmental sustainability, animal health and welfare, farm infrastructure, hygiene standards, soil and grassland management, farm advocacy and technical performance.<\/p>\n
The Byrne Family Dairy Farm, located in Coolnasmear near Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, at the foot of the Comeragh Mountains, is run by John and Mary Byrne, their children Molly and Eamon, and John\u2019s parents, Eamon and Mary. Supplying Tirl\u00e1n, the fifth-generation family farm milks 220 cows and produced an impressive 556kg of milk solids per cow in 2024, with exceptionally low TBC (12) and SCC (56) results. With a strong focus on milk quality, animal welfare, and sustainability, the Byrnes see themselves as stewards of the land, maintaining the highest hygiene standards in their 20-unit DeLaval parlour and continually improving the farm for future generations.<\/p>\n
The Ryan Farm from Thurles Co. Tipperary, supplying Aurivo Co-op \u2013 Trench were announced as the overall winners at the awards.<\/p>\n
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD, commented: \u201cI would like to offer my warmest\u00a0congratulations\u00a0to this year\u2019s overall winner of the NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards, the Ryan family from County Tipperary, whose dedication to everyday excellence, from paddock to parlour, has deservedly earned them recognition at this year\u2019s awards\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland\u2019s global reputation as a sustainable producer of quality dairy is built upon the hard work and commitment of Irish farming families like the Ryans and all those we celebrate today. Not only have they each earned the recognition of their own co-operatives, they have represented their families, local communities, and the national dairy sector with pride, showcasing what it takes to produce a top quality product while upholding the highest standards in animal care and environmental stewardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to commend all of this year\u2019s finalists, the category winners and the overall winner, for their hard work and achievements. They each play a central role in safeguarding Ireland\u2019s respected dairy tradition and I wish them all continued success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conor Galvin, Chief Executive, Ornua\u00a0said:\u00a0\u201cOn behalf of Ornua, I am delighted to congratulate Tom, Mary and Michael Ryan and Centenary Thurles on being named the overall winners of the 2025 NDC and Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards. The Ryans\u2019 exceptional performance across every aspect of milk production is underpinned by their dedication to craft, time-honoured expertise, and a genuine passion for what they do.<\/p>\n
Each finalist brings their own unique perspective and heritage story to this year\u2019s awards, but they all share the same deep commitment to quality that earns grass-fed Irish dairy, and Kerrygold, a place in the hearts and homes of consumers all over the world. It all begins at the farm level, and I\u2019d like to all of our finalists, their teams, their respective co-operatives and milk advisors for protecting and promoting our reputation as a world leader in sustainable dairy production. It is foundational to the work we do in Ornua in confidently bringing world-class, sustainably-produced grass-fed dairy to the world and capturing value for those that produce it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emma Walls, CEO, National Dairy Council\u00a0said:\u00a0\u201cCongratulations\u00a0to the Ryan family farm on this outstanding achievement. Each of our finalists are a winner in their own right, demonstrating that excellence in dairy production is achievable every day. Ireland\u2019s global reputation is built on the commitment and sustainability practices of Irish dairy famers setting the benchmark for nutritious, grass-based milk production. The dedication shown by our finalists, category winners and overall winners reaffirms Ireland\u2019s pride in its dairy farming families, processors and advisors.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the overall prize, six category awards were presented for excellence in the individual areas of\u00a0milk hygiene and facilities,\u00a0environmental stewardship,\u00a0grassland management,\u00a0lowest carbon footprint,\u00a0low somatic cell count (SCC),\u00a0and\u00a0animal health and welfare.<\/p>\n
For the latest Waterford\u00a0News<\/a><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/b>Sport<\/a>,<\/a><\/b>\u00a0tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ornua and the National Dairy Council are delighted to announce that the\u00a0Byrne Farm, from Dungarvan, Co. Waterford won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,85098],"class_list":{"0":"post-143996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-waterford-farm"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115432815602309079","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}