Teamwork the secret ingredient to producing award-winning dairy products

The latest award - its Duck River Premium Butter being named champion butter at this year's Australian Grand Dairy Awards.

It is the second year in a row the Spreyton site has won that award and it also secured four gold and two silver medals for butter and milk powder products, and the trophy for the best Consumer Pack Butter in Tasmania at the 2023 Dairy Industry Association of Australia (DIAA) Australian Dairy Product Awards.

Jason Knowles, who has been a butter maker for 27 years, said the team effort was what contributed to the award winning products.

"It all starts at the farm with the raw materials and it goes through the production chain," he said.

"Our work ethic here is all about making the best product you can with the machinery you have got.

"Our work practices are all top notch and if we do that 100 per cent, you shouldn't have any failures."

Mr Knowles is now training up the newest butter makers, including Phil Hall-Midson.

Mr Hall-Midson said he was keen to learn from the more experienced butter makers.

"There are also two or three [workers] with over 30 years [experience] and hopefully I'll get as much information out of them as I can before they move on," he said.

"All our managers have organised production for each day and week and they have put us on the right path.

"We are a small team but one team as we help each other out where we can, we are all like family and it is enjoyable to come to work."