Quality milk at the heart of award-winning cheese
International Cheese and Dairy Award winners talk milk quality
As every artisan cheesemaker knows, making award-winning cheese doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a mix of passion, dedication and craft to make the world’s best cheese. Most importantly, though, award-winning cheese starts with quality milk, and quality milk comes from healthy cows. Three International Cheese and Dairy Award winners share their stories with focus on how they ensure consistent milk quality.
This year’s Supreme Champion went to The Bath Soft Cheese Company for the Wyfe of Bath, a creamy, semi-hard cheese named after Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The Bath Soft Cheese Company was presented with five other awards at the show, as well, including Best Washed Rind Cheese and Best Specialty Cheese for Merry Wyfe.
The Padfields, a fourth-generation farming and cheese making family, own Bath Soft Cheese Company. Located just outside Bath, Somerset, the family farm has been in operation since the 1900s. All cheese is made by hand using organic milk from their pasture-grazed herd.
The Padfields’ 165 Holstein Friesian cows produce a total of 2,500 liters each day. Average butterfat content is 3.97 per cent and average protein levels are 3.24 per cent. Cows are milked twice daily with a 20-unit herringbone Boumatic. To further improve production, the team has also incorporated auto identification, activity monitors and a segregation gate into its operation.
“Approximately 2,000 to 2,500 liters goes into cheese making here at the farm,” explained Nick Rose, Sales and Marketing Manager with the company. “Our own milk supplies our
... To read this article you need a Premium or Digital subscription
Subscribe & login and you will be able to continue your reading * M2-premium – digital + print (€ 90 /year) * M2 – digital (€ 40 /year)