48 STUD FARM JUN / JUL 2021 • farmers-mart . co . uk
DAIRY HEROES ON THE HOLDERNESS COAST
Chris Berry talks with Eric & Sue Varley of Stud Farm & Chestnut Dairies .
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CHESTNUT Dairies should have been awarded some kind of local hero award or farming award some years ago when , at the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain ( DFB ), this little East Yorkshire dairy on the Holderness coast took on an additional 22 dairy farms on the North York Moors .
Let ’ s get some things straight . Chestnut Dairies is a family concern with husband and wife Eric and Sue Varley and their three grown up children – Claire , Mathieu and Danielle – all involved in what is a dairy farm as well as a dairy .
It is one of the last small dairies in Yorkshire and one of only two milking cow dairies in the East Riding , which was never famed for its quantity of dairy herds and has been on the slide in numbers since milk deregulation occurred in 1994-95 and since Northern Dairies closed their dairy in Hull .
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Stud Farm at Seaton near Hornsea runs to 200 acres and is home to the Varleys ’ 120 pedigree Holstein Friesian cow dairy herd that has just been increased to that number in the past 18 months having put in a new 12-unit Fullwood swingover parlour which was commissioned in March 2020 .
It is also home to Chestnut Dairies . They currently collect milk from 12 dairy farms with the nearest being 13 miles away at Cherry Burton . Eric and Sue have a team of 24 with half of them being drivers . They have two tankers for collections and the rest of their fleet are lorries providing deliveries .
‘ Our staff are amazing ,’ says Sue . ‘ We can ’ t thank them enough . Everyone works very hard here and our drivers were delivering to all of the hotspots during the time when Covid was at its height .’
‘ We have worked closely with Heron Foods since 2010 and we try to sell as much locally as we can into independent retailers . We are always looking for new customers – and as we expand our sales we also look for greater supply of milk , which means finding more dairy farmers , but we don ’ t want farmers who want to jump ship every five minutes .’
The Varleys have built a solid reputation with farmers and retail outlets . Their assistance for dairy farmers after the collapse of DFB was much appreciated at the time by those who had feared the worst .
‘ We had dairy farmers from as far afield as Rosedale Abbey and we were selling milk on the open market at the time . We just felt that if we had been in the same situation as them we would have needed help too .’
Sue ’ s outlook on life is refreshing and positive , even though
sometimes she is faced with some difficult challenges .
‘ Challenges have always been and always will be around . We live for today . We appreciate and are grateful for what we have , such as seeing the wonder of nature as the hawthorn hedges blossom .’
‘ We are very grateful to all of our customers for buying our milk . We know that we are in a privileged position working in the countryside . During
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