Rachel Boyce – CAFRE student profile

Hi, my name is Rachel Boyce and I live near Garvagh. I am a past Pupil of Coleraine Grammar School. I am currently studying Food Technology at CAFRE, Loughry Campus. I have just returned to complete my final year after a very busy year on placement. In my second year I secured a scholarship with Lakeland dairies, this offered both financial support towards my studies as well as a 1-year paid placement in their Ballyrashane site.

Despite my own background on a dairy farm, I was quite unaware of the entire processes and procedures that happen in milk processing once the raw milk leaves the farm gate. My placement has definitely changed that, and it has been a great opportunity to gain hands-on knowledge and experience in the next step from “field to fridge”. As a Production Student within the Retail Milk Department, I was responsible for a wide variety of jobs daily. These included ensuring the HACCP plan for the department is being followed, guaranteeing traceability of both product and packaging such as caps, jars and labels, helping to host audits and customer visits, reviewing that departmental SOPs are being followed to a high standard, as well as representing the department at site meetings. My role was very much dependent on what was happening within the department on any given day, meaning there is a great variety in what I could be doing throughout the week which I thoroughly enjoyed. I always thought I wanted to go down the quality and technical pathway, but this placement showed me that I am much more interested in getting stuck in on the production floor.

My placement in Lakeland has really developed my passion for the dairy industry, and I am very pleased to have been asked to return for full time employment after I

graduate, as well as continuing to work for the company part-time when I return to study this, Autumn.

While on placement in the retail milk department, I was heavily involved in the efficiencies and OEE of the operations. During this time, I noticed that there had been a drop in efficiency on all 3 bottling lines since the pandemic in 2020. Using lean based methodology, I analysed the performance and identified which areas needed attention, to achieve a 10% increase in efficiency on each line. This involved a lot of maintenance and refurbishments, training, better communication etc. My placement supervisor Judith Oliver from Loughry, made me aware of the UK Society of Dairy Technology Student of the Year competition which I entered with my project. I was delighted to find out I had won, being the first student from Northern Ireland to ever win the award. This was such an achievement!

When I am not studying you will find me looking after my own herd of Pedigree Limousins, I started a few years ago and now have 12 cows in total. I enjoy all aspects of this, especially the breeding and calving time. I also work on the family farm, consisting of beef, suckler, dairy, pigs and chickens. In my free time, I am the assistant secretary of my Young Farmers Club, and I am becoming an officer at Girls Brigade.