Teamwork makes the dream work is an oft used phrase and Andrew is a great believer in having a great team behind him and using professionals in every area . It ’ s also a numbers game .

“ There really needs to be 4 of us here every day to achieve everything . Finding the right people is always difficult . I ’ ve been fortunate that I have one lad who ’ s been with me from school and is a workaholic . “ I look everywhere to find the right people . I don ’ t mind what I do but there are times when I need to be off the coal face a bit , to run the business , because you end up doing that over every weekend and on a night .

“ What I needed earlier this year was somebody on site because with robots it is 24 / 7 . I ’ m the one that ’ s on call , if there ’ s a problem and you can ’ t really get away . To have somebody on site that gives me peace of mind , they really need to be a good herdsman that if there ’ s a problem with a cow they can deal with it . On other side with the robots I need somebody with a bit of nous on technology . I ’ m constantly looking for that really good person , no one trick pony .

“ Everyone also has to work as a team and we do , with 3 full time , 3 part time and myself . The team here works really well and tirelessly . You can ’ t do this on your own . And the same goes for RMS Genus and our feed specialists Carrs Billington .

“ We have an old boy , Dick Brown , who used to work for ForFarmers , the same age as my dad , who goes through all the cow shit to see how the diets work and then feeds back that information and works with the nutritionist and buys all my feed in .

Andrew and his partner Sarah are getting married this month and might have done so by the time you read this story .

“ We have four kids between us , Hannah ( 19 ), Oliver ( 17 ), Oliver ( 12 ) and Camilla ( 10 ). They ’ re not me . I was here when I could

crawl . Camilla likes to come out when she ’ s here and do the calves . She ’ s more interested at this stage than Oliver , we ’ ll see what happens . Our wedding is here on the farm on July 20 . We ’ ve got it licensed . There ’ ll just be12 of us at the wedding , just very close family and then later we ’ ll have all the farmers and riff raffs .

White House Farm has been in the Leggott family since the 1800s and Andrew is the fifth generation but the dairy side didn ’ t come until the late 1980s when his grandfather George retired .

“ He had three sons and ended up with three farms . The main dairy herd was at my grandma ’ s family farm . This was my granddad ’ s family farm . They weren ’ t traditionally dairy farmers . In between the two farms they purchased another .

“ When he retired they split two herds of cows into three and father and his two brothers set off on their own . It was 1989 when the first cows were milked here . My father , also a George , is still with us .

“ When Granddad set off the original dairy herd at his wife ’ s dairy farm back in the 1950s he had a few cows to make a start and soon started milk recording , showing and was one of the first to go into embryo transfers . He was quite into his breeding and genetics even back then and kept growing the herd of pedigree British Friesians .

“ Granddad ’ s herd was under the Cockleton herd , he had two herds , one at Hutton Bonville , but they all came under Cockleton name . When my granddad retired , the farm where one of my uncles was , kept that prefix and my dad and his other brother started new prefixes which is where Cocklewood comes from , there ’ s a wood just over the road . We set off with about 60 cows .

Cockerills Drilling commented on their part of the teamwork at White House Farm through their own professional work following an earthquake :

Andrew contacted us following an issue with an existing water borehole producing sand . Upon fault finding we detected there had been a nearby earthquake thus affecting the borehole ’ s design and structure . Upon further discussion with Andrew and establishing his current need and future requirements for his growing farm , our recommendation was to drill a new borehole in a new location . We implemented this and within this new borehole we applied our standard , but modernised practice of lining and gravel pack , to protect the structural integrity and increase longevity of the borehole . Alongside this , we installed a new block-built kiosk , with all the electrics required , including booster pumps , filtration needs and a large water storage tank , which we now provide with regular servicing and maintenance checks .