Every year for the past three years Brantley’s Dairy made the top 10 list for the cleanest dairy in the state. This year, Brantley’s Dairy is number one, the top of the top 10, the cleanest dairy in Florida.

“I don’t do anything special,” Mike Brantley, owner and operator of Brantley’s Dairy said. “We make the list by paying attention to detail and making sure everything is done like it’s supposed to be.”

Brantley really knows his dairy business. His family owned a dairy in South Florida when he was a kid. “I grew up in it,” he said. “It’s what I know.”

Luciano Chavez has been employed at the dairy since Brantley bought it in 1997. Chavez is a morning milker along with Guillermina Lazcano. They are two of the loyal Brantley employees who pay attention to those details and keep Brantley in the top 10. Last year they were number-two and the year before number three.

Cleanliness is computed with a quarterly inspection rating of 90 percent or higher, a low bacteria count, (Brantley’s was way lower than any other dairy at only 967 parts per million) and a low somatic cell count.

Brantley’s Dairy is also in the top 25 for milk production. He milks his 350 head of Holsteins twice a day. But according to Brantley, milk prices are down. Brantley said there is a lot of milk on the market, so much in California the milk producers are actually dumping milk at the dairy.

Brantley has his cows on concrete all the time. The Dairy’s manure and effluents are stored in a huge silo-like container and then sprayed on his hay fields. The dairy feeds its own hay as silage. Brantley said the tank storage has saved him on fertilizer costs, but the recent lack of rain is hurting him just as it always does.

In the summer, Brantley said the cows suffer from the heat. He air conditions the herd with sprinklers and fans. In the heat of the afternoon, Brantley said his girls head for the barn and the relief from the heat they know is there.

“In the afternoon, they’ll start off walking toward the barn, then they’ll trot, then they’ll come running,” Brantley said.

According to Brantley production is down 20 percent every summer in the heat.

Brantley said it’s a thrill to see his dairy’s name at the top of the Florida Dairy Producers Conference annual list. The list comes out in May with the tabulations and winners for the previous year.

“But,” Brantley said, “It doesn’t pay a dollar more being number one.”