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last year , but our mum Joyce is still with us . I remember milking in an old byre as little boy .
Tom says they were selling their milk to Dairy Farmers of Britain when it went bust , but they were fortunate to get an Arla contract almost immediately following the demise and now they are on a select contract supplying Starbucks , and while nobody likes any downturn in milk price when it comes as the market dropped last year after a phenomenal run , overall they are reasonably happy .
“ It was two years ago that we were approached to go on the Starbucks contract . There were only 13 farmers in UK selected so it is quite prestigious . It is part of the Arla 360 and we get a bonus for that .
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‘ we do very well with productionat somewhere in the region of 13,000 litres per cow on twice a day milking ’ “ It is annoying when the milk price goes down but on average over the last five years we ’ ve been up near the top , so we can ’ t complain . It ’ s just over 40ppl at the moment ( June ). Personally , I don ’ t think it should ever have dropped down to the low it did last year of 32-33ppl . It would always be better to have a more consistent price , a happy
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medium . We were up at 55ppl before it dropped .
Tom says that getting the numbers right in all areas is a key to a successful dairy farm .
“ A few years ago we thought about 300 cows would be our limit . We ’ d got to 280 milking but then realised we didn ’ t have the space for that . Staffing became more of an issue . Now we are about comfortable and can ’ t house any more without putting up more sheds .
“ We ’ ve one man full-time for milking , two part-time girls and a
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guy who has been with us 33-35 years , is semi-retired and does all the feeding and tractor work .
Howard picks up from Tom at this point .
“ Every farm should have a Peter Farndale because he ’ s just a rock of a man , gets on with it , does the job once , you don ’ t have to go and check if it ’ s been done . If he ’ s done it , it will be done correctly and if he ’ s unsure about anything he asks . He ’ ll take anything on board . He ’ s a farmer ’ s son , a bit like us . His wife says he ’ s spent most of his
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life here rather than at home .
The Willow Tree Farm dairy enterprise now sees all cows fully housed and the sheds were built to house them inside with wide passageways and deep sandbeds .
Tom says there are 65-70 replacement heifers needed each year and that beef calves are sold from a fortnight to six weeks to a private individual and that they are all bred to the Angus .
“ Our replacement heifers are served at 12 months and are calving into the herd at 23
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