The Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and the Environment, through the Institute of Food and Agricultural Markets (IAMA), will provide results of further analysis results to 2,310 milk producers from S. Miguel, Terceira, Graciosa, S. Jorge, Pico, Faial, Flores and Corvo in order reduce costs and contribute to the ongoing improvement of quality.

In addition to receiving the results of the analyses on a monthly basis, producers start being informed via mobile phone message about the levels of urea, the geometric means average of somatic cells and the microbial count of each of the milk samples collected by SERCLA - Milk Classification Service.

The parameter concerning the levels of urea in milk is an extremely useful tool for producers insofar as it allows them to control protein level in the feeding of dairy cows, which has a very significant impact on the costs borne by farms.

Besides the benefits for producers, the monitoring of this parameter also contributes to the reduction of nitrogen levels in the soil, thus avoiding the lixiviation of soils and, consequently, its environmental impact.

In turn, the information on the geometric means of microbial and somatic cell counts allows producers to have immediate knowledge of these values, giving them the possibility to take action towards the improvement of milk quality.