A University of New Hampshire dairy farm is getting high marks from state officials as a quality milk producer.
The Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center has scored high during inspections.
Chuck Metcalf, supervisor with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Dairy Sanitation Program, says a passing score for an inspection is 90 with no critical items, such as poor cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and improper handling of milk from cows that have been treated with antibiotics or are producing abnormal milk.
The Fairchild operation scored 96.
Fairchild houses 87 milking-age Holstein and Jersey cows and approximately 70 growing, replacement animals. Cows produce an average of about 26,000 to 27,000 pounds of milk per cow per year, which is greater than the national average of about 22,000 pounds per cow a year.
For the last few years, the farm received the Gold Quality Award from the Dairy Farmers of America.
The dairy farm is open to the public seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Visitors can observe the milking of cows at 3:30 p.m. each day.
