Lawns Farm
The planning and installation of new dairy systems
• Milking parlours & parlour updates
• Milk cooling systems
• MIone automatic milking system
• Dairy hygiene solutions
• Servicing & spares
• Farm equipment – including automatic feeding & slurry handling equipment
Call us on 01476 575447 ( Office ) | 07980 584856 ( Mobile ) www . griffinsdairyequipment . co . uk
Griffins Dairy Equipment , Tanglewood , Barrowby Road , Grantham , Lincs . NG31 8NR can ’ t compete with 2000-strong cow herds in the US and 1000 cow herds in Australia . We ’ ve no chance on the market . We ’ re just a small family farm .
‘ What I began to understand through what we ’ ve done with the farm shop is that adding value by marketing local fresh produce to local people can give us a better margin – and also works well with local people who are now what we are all about . So we ’ re trying our level best to move out of the commodities market and concentrating our efforts on connecting with our consumers , people who live close to us .
‘ We now bottle our own branded milk . It ’ s from grass to glass , or maybe plas ( plastic )! Our cows are born , reared and milked on the farm and we get that message across every time we can . We ’ re offering that most personal of service too , delivery to your door .
‘ It will take us more time before we reach the point where 100 per cent of our milk is delivered or sold direct from the farm but we ’ re on our way . Our 65 milkers average 7000 litres per year , which means we ’ re producing around 420,000 litres . My initial target is for us to reach 10,000 litres sold from here every month . At present we ’ re around 4000 litres but we ’ ve only been going for a year . We ’ re bottling 1 and 2 litre plastic bottles .
‘ It has been a steep learning curve from quantity surveying to farming , marketing , putting in a bottling plant , learning how to pasteurise , bottle it , branding and set up a milk round from scratch . I milk the cows in the morning , our apprentice milks in the afternoon while I bottle from 5pm . Chris delivers it in the morning so it is milked , bottled and delivered in 24 hours – hence our name , making use of our aptly named hamlet , it ’ s Morthen Milk .
‘ The shop already had a good following on social media so we ’ ve been able to bounce off the back of that with the milk . We ’ ve found that once you get one person in a neighbourhood all of a sudden that can develop into three of four .’
The Ross family sells the lion ’ s share of its milk to Buckley Dairies whose price in common with others in the sector has risen steadily since the really dark days of last year . George sees the farm ’ s future looking a little healthier , but is confident that their approach to marketing Morthen Milk is the way forward . He would also like to see other improvements made for their dairy herd when cash allows .
‘ Cow welfare is vital , especially when we ’ re marketing the way we are . We want people to see that our cows have happy lives . Ideally I ’ d like to go to a loose-housed system and with robotic milking ; that way we also get real time feedback about the herd too and can act before any problems occur .’
Clover , maize , wheat and barley are all grown for feed and the farm has 50 acres of permanent pasture . The land is largely on clay and coal measures .
Connecting with the public has become not just about selling their wares but also running events on the farm too . They were part of the national Open Farm Sunday in June and also host their own mini- Glastonbury called FARMFEST in August .
‘ We started FARMFEST four years ago and FARMFEST 4 will be held on Sunday 27 August this year when The Chris Berry Band will be playing !’ says George . We had 400 the first year but last year ’ s attracted nearly 3000 ! Come along and see us . There will also be piglet racing , Lewis the Longhorn and Oprah the dairy cow who can be milked by hand .’
68 Summer 2017 www . farmers-mart . co . uk