City University Starts Selling Milk From Its Own Herd

In a first for a local university, City University will be selling fresh milk on its Kowloon Tong campus from Thursday.

The milk is sourced from cattle that were imported from Australia in September for the school's farm in Lam Tsuen.

University Farm started full operation when when the cattle arrived, and Vanessa Barrs, the dean of the Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences at the university, said the farm had partnered with Trappist Dairy and the milk went through normal testing to ensure it met quality standards.

The milk was now for sale, she added.

"At the moment, we have fresh milk available. It's produced in 238ml cartons. It's fresh Jersey milk. It's very creamy and very tasty. And in the near future we'll also have ice cream for sale at the milk counter, Barrs told RTHK.

She said members of the public visiting the campus could buy the milk, and the university was considering making "small amounts" of milk available to some supermarkets.

Barr said the working dairy farm was a fundamental component to teach veterinary medicine in its internationally accredited six-year degree programme, the only such programme in the SAR.

She said they imported 24 in-calf Jersey heifers from Australia and the first calves were born around Chinese New Year.

"They are a small-sized cow and they're a more heat-tolerant breed, so they're quite well adapted for Hong Kong's climate," Barr said.

She said the university had staff experienced in dairy farming and dairy medicine.

"We really intend for our dairy farm to be a centre for excellence here in Hong Kong - a centre of excellence in teaching and excellence," Barr said.