Mr Richard Kennedy, IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman welcomed today’s (Wednesday) announcement by Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan that cross-checking by Department Inspectors of milk testing by co-ops would start from April 1st.

This is on a par with the Government’s Partnership commitment to IFA. This verification protocol will cover the testing of all constituents used for payment, audit of lab procedures, check calibration of machinery, and verify the results sent back to farmers. Results of the cross-checks will be published by the Department.

Mr Kennedy believes that while this new protocol was welcome, it was only the first step in raising the standards of Irish milk testing to international best practice, paving the way for full accreditation of central, independent milk testing laboratories.

“I believe this move will help focus the minds of all in the dairy industry on the importance of proper standards in milk testing, from sample taking, all the way to the returning of results to both farmers and processors,” said Mr Kennedy

“However, I see it as merely the first step towards world class ISO 17025 accreditation of a small number of centralised milk laboratories, shared by all milk processors, which could easily be established on an independent footing,” added Mr Kennedy.

Mr Kennedy said the chances of achieving fully accredited and ultimately independent milk testing in one or a few central laboratories for all of Ireland’s milk have never been better:

“Dairygold have committed to outsourcing their milk testing needs to a fully accredited third party lab by 2009. The West Cork Co-ops have decided to centralise all of their milk testing into one, accredited laboratory. Connacht Gold are preparing to invest in new, accredited facilities and are willing to share those with other neighbouring co-ops. The Chairman of Lakeland Co-op publicly expressed his support for a single, world-class milk testing lab.

“Many other co-ops have declared to us they were seriously looking into accreditation for milk testing, and an increasing number of them have now recognised the importance for farm management purposes as well as accuracy of results, of testing every collection,” he added.

“These strands all go in the right direction, but now they must come together. Co-ops must agree to share the use of a small number of fully accredited, world class standard facilities – eventually ensuring that those are operated independently,” he remarked.  He concluded by saying, “as a dairying nation, we have very realistic ambitions to compete on the world scene. To do this, we need world-class milk testing standards. Milk producers are legitimately entitled to demand that their co-ops deliver them”.

---