Lakeland Dairies has rolled out a new series of measures to help halt the spread of Covid-19 as well as protecting the health and wellbeing of farmers and customers.
For customers of the Lakeland Agri stores in Longford Town, Lough Egish and Monaghan Town stores, new Perspex screens have been installed to create a “strong sense” of contact distancing between staff and customers.
Other measures in place include limiting the number of customers permitted in a store at each time, a necessity to wash hands before entering the store, a call and collect service for customers who require it as well as the need for customers to remain in their vehicles while being loaded.
An informative video has been produced and sent to farmers outlining the contact distancing protocols in place at the Lakeland Agri stores.
Patience and goodwill
Mark Delahunty, general manager of Lakeland Agri, paid tribute to staff and customers for their patience and goodwill. “This is a difficult time for everyone in society. At Lakeland Agri, and across our network of stores, as well as at our feed mill in Lough Egish, we are playing our part to help curtail the spread of COVID-19.”
Stores remain stocked and, with clear protocols, the company is “operating efficiently”.“The health, safety and wellbeing of our customers and staff are our absolute key priorities.”
“We also assure our customers that we continue to deliver bulk feed deliveries on time to our customers, and ask customers to observe our delivery protocols and social distancing from our delivery staff.”
“I greatly appreciate the efforts and understanding of both our customers and staff during what it is a testing time.”
“We are committed to working our way through this and servicing our customers. Our technical support staff are available on the phone for any queries by calling 1890 47 47 20,” Mark added.
Milk collection
Keeping milk collected in a safe and hygienic manner on farms is a “key priority” for Lakeland Dairies. Clear protocols on milk collection have been issued to farmers in recent weeks.
Farmers have been asked to have handwashing facilities in place for hauliers with soap, hot water and paper towels plus a bin for disposal.
They are also asked to thoroughly clean all surfaces that the milk haulier encounters such as the handle of the dairy door plus all necessary areas on the bulk tank. All contact between farmer and haulier must be avoided.
Lakeland Dairies hauliers have received training and guidelines on how to safely collect milk on farms. Duignan said compliance rates at farm-level is exceptionally high. “Farmers and hauliers are taking the health and safety around milk collection extremely seriously.”
“It is our aim to continue the seamless collection and processing of milk. Central to this is the hygienic collection of milk.”
“I want to thank our farmers and hauliers for their efforts thus far and urge everyone to keep taking the COVID-19 threat extremely seriously.”
Farmers with any queries can contact member relations on: 1890 47 47 20.
