Cream of the crop!
Photo contributed
Marketing and Communications Manager Anne Bennett and milker Danielle Taylor proudly display their award-winning Ashgrove Full Cream Milk, produced at the Elizabeth Town farm and available at many retail outlets across Tasmania.
By Lorraine Clarke
SOME PEOPLE get the cream
of all jobs. Judges of the annual Australian Grand Dairy Awards get to taste hundreds of gold medal winning products in the grand final, including milk, cream, butter, cheese, yoghurt, ice cream and dairy gelato. Ashgrove Farms at Elizabeth Town puts Meander Valley on the dairy lovers’ map with its gold medal milk, produced by 2,500 of ‘the happiest cows on the planet’, with all milking, bottling and manufacturing done on the farm. The simple motto expresses it all – ‘Grass. Cow. You’. Ashgrove produces homogenised Full Cream milk, 1% Farm Lite, non-homogenised Green Milk, and 2% Barista milk – the perfect density for foam art. Anne Bennett, Marketing and Communications Manager, is passionate about the milk produced by the family farm business. She is responsible for exhibiting Ashgrove products at state and national dairy industry shows, with astonishing success.
‘The essence of everything we do is milk. Our benchmark is to have the best quality milk that we can transform into the best cheeses. The AGD Award tells customers that our product has been made from the best milk in Australia.’ Ashgrove Tasmanian Farm Full Cream Milk qualified for the 2020 Australian Grand Dairy Awards by winning gold at the 2019 Royal Hobart Fine Food Awards. AGDA judges liquid milk on shelf testing, appearance, taste, aroma, texture and presentation. ‘It is like the Logies for us. Everyone who works here is so thrilled when they know there’s a competition on. We have over 100 great locals here. We employ cheesemakers, milkers, graphic designers.’ Danielle Taylor, milker and calf rearer, said that working at Ashgrove is her dream job. ‘I just want to work outside.’
Ashgrove is justifiably proud of the high standards of cow husbandry on the farm. No cows have tails docked, and polled bulls are used to avoid the stress of dehorning. Male calves are not culled at birth, but raised to maturity for the local beef market. The Ashgrove herd is a blend of Friesian, Jersey and Swiss Brown cows, averaging about 18 litres of milk each per day. The emphasis here is on quality rather than quantity and the milk naturally contains 3.5% protein and 3.8% butterfat. ‘Milk is a very local product. Our Full Cream milk has nothing added or removed. No permeates, milk solids or diluents. We think it’s perfect just the way it is.” Ashgrove welcomes visitors at 6173 Bass Highway, Elizabeth Town. Their online store is found at www.ashgrovecheese. com.au.
