A PEMBROKESHIRE farm has scooped an all-Wales dairy award in its first attempt at the competition.

The winners of this year’s Federation of Welsh Grassland Societies over-all Milk Hygiene competition are JJ Peters and Son, of Sunnyhill, Crundale, Haverfordwest.

Having won the small producer award (up to one million litres per year) and the farm then went on to win the main category for overall Welsh winners.

Margaret Peters said: “We are delighted to have won the award in our first year of entering!

"Six months ago, we opened a milk vending machine on our farmyard, selling our pasteurised organic milk to the general public. We are very proud on winning this award, which will obviously be excellent publicity to support and promote the quality of our milk.”

You can follow them on Facebook/Instagram – @sunnyhillfarmdairy.

The award for the large producer (above one million litres per year) goes to Jeff Evans, of Broadmoor Farm, Wolfscastle, Haverfordwest; and the most improved producer award goes to John Young Farms, of Neuadd Farm, Abergavenny, members of Monmouth Grassland Society.

JJ Peters and Son run a 115-cow, organic, closed herd, which is currently under bTB restrictions, and set up selling milk through a milk vending machine on the farm in August 2021 which included adding a pasteurising unit.

Mr and Mrs Peters are helped by their daughter Annie who is currently a student at Gelli Aur College. She spends every spare minute she’s not in college or studying, helping on the farm with managing the herd and processing the milk, as well as dealing with social media marketing enquiries.

Currently less than 5 per cent of the milk produced is sold through the vending machine. They also feed whole milk to rear the calves as powdered organic milk was prohibitively expensive. With an average 7,500lt lactation, the rest of the milk goes to OMSCo.

They AI all their Holstein cows which are housed in cubicles over winter and out to grass the rest of the year. Calving is all year round and milk recording is done monthly.

Winner in the large producer category, Jeff Evans, runs a 220-cow, closed herd, also under bTB restrictions, and is milked through a herringbone parlour. Milking continues for 10 months before the whole herd is dried off in January and February.

The farm does its own AI using sexed semen and has a beef bull to sweep up. Mr Evans mostly does all of the milking himself with the occasional relief milker coming in.

Milk goes to First Milk for cheese. Cows are Friesian with a bit of Jersey and achieve an average 5500lt lactation.

Most improved producer John Young Farms of Abergavenny run a 240-Holstein type cow, closed herd, milked through an unusual Trigon parlour. Average yield is around 9,500lt. Large Holstein type cows.

FWGS secretary Charlie Morgan said celebrating the achievements of the very best in Welsh farming would inspire others to raise the bar for the whole industry.

“I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the judges who had travelled to visit the competitors to see these farms first hand," he said.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted greatly but our farmers continue to produce at very high standards.’’