Over the past five years, gains have been made in the milk quality profiles of PEI dairy farms.  These producers have some of the highest quality milk in the country.  MQM will be conducting bulk milk testing with three main objectives:

1- Assessment of Individual Bacteria Count (IBC) milk quality for adaption into the PEI milk quality monitoring programs for regulatory and management programs.

2- Evaluation of every pickup somatic cell count, components and MUN testing on bulk tank milk including design of most cost-effective testing regime.

3- Evaluation of the effect of sample handling and storage on milk quality parameters

Why is MQM conducting this research? The milk industry is interested in adapting new technology that may aid in growing the profiles of local dairy farmers. Milk is in the extremely competitive beverage market and the industry must present a consistently high quality product in order to maintain and advance market share. Additionally, approximately 80 percent of the production is exported, typically as processed milk products such as cheese.  Quality is a major determinant of market access and price for cheese products. Recently, ADL was the grand prize winner at a national cheese making competition and recognized the quality of raw milk as a major contributing factor to this success.