Barbados’ milk quality is one of the best in the world, according to the Pine Hill Dairy (PHD).
With local farmers having to produce milk way above stringent international standards, the island’s lone dairy processing plant is boasting that if local milk is placed on the international market, Barbados could give developed countries a good run for their money.
PHD farm liaison officer Jeremy Brereton explained that the dairy developed a rating system, based on international criteria, which determined the performance of the island’s 15 dairy farms.
“We use a weighted average and a non-compliance score,” he said. “Twelve tests, such as fat score, coliforms, antibiotics and so on are conducted to determine the quality of the milk and each parameter has an individual standard to meet. If your results fall within the specifications you get zero; if you place outside the criteria you get results greater than zero.”
He was speaking at Kendal Dairy Farm in St John, where milk was being collected. This is done five days a week.
Brereton said at the end of each quarter, all the parameters were tallied and PHD required each farmer to have a non-compliance milk score of less than one, adding that the closer a score was to zero, the better the quality.
Brereton said the Grade A standard was the result of hard work by dairy farmers and workers within the industry who gave of their best to achieve excellence.
He added that PHD’s farm recognition programme also contributed to the success. (SB)
