First Milk Home

Thanks to the hard work and daily commitment of our members, First Milk can proudly state that the milk we sell is of the very highest quality. While the vast majority of our members do a superb job on milk quality, there’s one producer who can be crowned the best of the best!

Mark Hall from Chipperlee Farm, Croxden in Rocester, Staffordshire has won our national milk quality award for the last two years as well as the Staffordshire regional award four years on the trot.

Milking around 65 Holstein Friesian cows, his yearly average cell count is 60 and his bactoscans 7 – that compares to our average of 200 for cell counts and 30 for bactoscans.

“Attention to detail, adherence to a good strict routine and good animal health and welfare are key,” he says, modestly. His routine consists of wiping the teats before milking with a chlorine dipped paper towel, used only once per cow, drying them off, stripping each quarter and then spraying after the cluster is removed with a chlorahexadine spray.

A hot wash night and day is used to wash the parlour. “I don’t believe that using one hot wash and one cold wash a day is good enough and I certainly don’t believe in reusing the wash water either,” he states. A stickler for keeping his 30 year old parlour in good nick, he has it checked once a year by Genus and every six months by an independent engineer, when the liners are changed.

His attention to detail on milk quality also extends to the housing and nutrition. The cows are scraped out two to three times a day depending on workloads, with Lysan spread on the bedding to help keep it dry. Nutritionally the maximum amount of selenium and vitamin E are also fed. A close working relationship with his vet also ensures problems with mastitis are instantly dealt with.

Mark’s priorities for quality milk are:
• get a good hygiene routine going;
• reduce the stress on the cows and manage them well;
• breed them for the job in the first place for longevity and with cell counts in mind;
• feed them well and stick to what works.

“If it isn’t broken we don’t fix it and we seem to have a system here that works and doesn’t need changing,” concluded Mark.