A taste for top quality, terroir at President's Medal winning Pecora Dairy

In just 12 years, Michael and Cressida Cains' sheep dairy and cheese business at Robertson has not only reached a point where it supplies cheese to two distributors - one which is Sydney based and the other supplying retailers nationally - but has matured sufficiently to where its owners have also branched out into pursuits beyond the farm gate.

It was this, along with their sustainability, which won them the President's Medal.

As the RAS of NSW president John Bennett said, this was the highest honour among Sydney Royal Show competitions for commercial producers of fine foods, dairy, wine, beer and cider products.

"It is the only competition of it's kind in Australia and looks beyond product taste and presentation to examine the vision and production cycle of the underlying business and its people," Mr Bennett said.

"The President's Medal ... takes into consideration not only the commercial success, and the environmental footprint, but also the social and community impact."

He said throughout the past year the fine foods judges tasted and evaluated 3923 entries before narrowing them to champions - including gold, silver and bronze medalists - and those were again reviewed to decide the top six finalists for the President's Medal judging.

The judges were NSW Department of Primary Industries deputy director-general Kate Lorimer-Ward and ABC presenter and also the award's master of ceremonies, Simon Marnie.

For the eventual winners, it was their champion Yarrawa cheese, Australia's first raw sheep's milk cheese which got their business into the top six.

Cressida said the judging was an in-depth study of their farm and processes "so captures things that can't be quantified or articulated by price".

The dairy milks about 150 ewes seasonally. The lambs are raised on their East Friesian dams, which had proven well adapted to their average annual rainfall of about two metres.

The dairy harvests the ewes' evening milk, while the lambs get the remainder throughout the day.

Lambing is in late July and Cressida said by leaving the lambs on the ewes it produced healthier lambs and reduced labour through no bottle feeding.

While that meant a hit to the volume of milk harvested, the ewes produced about one kilogram of cheese from five litres of milk, which compared favourably to 1kg of cheese from 10L of cow's milk.

They also found savings in their energy with solar panels and batteries powering their house and business, the surplus energy used by their wine and cheese venue in Robertson and also sold among a peer-to-peer group of businesses.

These included Pecora, a winery at Cootamundra, a dairy at Kiama and vegetable farm at Robertson and was part of their "overall premise that farmers can be part of the climate solution".

Judge, Simon Marnie, in presenting the award, said he saw a business where each person brought elements to the whole.

As Cressida explained, Michael probably had more cheese making knowledge, while she had more animal knowledge - but together they were making an art out of challenging industry norms.

After a trip to Europe they "threw the safety method out the window" according to Simon Marnie, "and it worked".

Simon's explanation was an abridged version of the process, which Cressida said took 2 1/2 years working with the NSW Food Authority to develop a suitable method which required no heat treatment. But they now had an award-winning raw milk cheese - which was also about the terroir.

"Raw milk cheese is really important because it gives us a snapshot of what happens on our farm at a particular point in time so we get an an understanding of the season, the lactation the microflora that's happening around the farm," Michael explained.

"So I think there are very few other food stuffs that just so particularly encapsulates the terroir as a raw milk cheese and we're just really pleased that it's the ultimate way to express our farm on a plate."

Both had come from a winemaking background and so brought with them an appreciation of where and how their food was produced.

Cressida said in the context of many people these days rejecting entire food groups, the important question of "how is this farmed, rather than what's being farmed" was being missed.

Beyond the core functions of running the farm and making cheese, with a maturing business the couple were now also finding time to step out into other roles in the community.

"I'm passionate about getting more women into agriculture," said Cressida, who is chair of the Rural Women's Award Alumni and on the board of Australian Women in Agriculture, as well as founder of not-for-profit digital support hub, Dairy Cocoon.

Michael, meanwhile, is chair of the Kiama Chamber of Commerce and their peer-to-peer energy trading group.

He is also proud of what Pecora has achieved in a relatively short period.

"I think what surprises people is Pecora dairy has only been operating for 12 years," he explained, as they received their award at Sydney Royal Show.

"We sought to find a better life for ourselves and our children. We had a crack."

As the winners, they receive $10,000, the opportunity to activate a pop-up stand at next year's Sydney Royal and award artwork for promotional use.

Other finalists include Meredith Dairy, a sheep and goat dairy at Meredith, Vic, Gumshire Pork, which specialises in the rare Hampshire pig at Kyneton, SA, Stockyard Beef, Jondaryan, Qld, The Food Farm, at Wyong Creek, which grows and butchers pasture-raised chicken, beef and eggs, and Mountain Culture Beer Co, Katoomba.