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The industrially-produced milk that costs £1 for four pints at the supermarket isn’t the freshest or healthiest on offer. But most people don’t have the option of popping over to a local farm to purchase a frothy pint or two over the gate.
That’s where new micro-dairies come in. Small, local processing rooms are being set up in a handful of farms across the country to deliver fresh, healthy, locally-produced milk to doorsteps, nearby shops, restaurants and cafes. “Every fridge in the country has a bottle of milk in it,” says Nick Snelgar, a smallholder who has recently set up a micro-dairy in Salisbury. “But the dairy industry is in the hands of just a few powerful companies. We’re trying to change that.”
Ten months ago, Snelgar set up a micro-dairy processing plant, funded with a £45,000 award he won from the Prince’s Countryside Trust. He bought second-hand machinery and trained in how to pasteurise and package milk.
He now sells over 2,000 litres of milk each week on doorsteps, in restaurants and it’s sold at the local shops for £1.20 a litre under the label Maple Field Milk. It’s not organic, as the idea is a “run of the mill general product that appeals to everyone” but it’s non-homogenised, which means it’s less processed and has not undergone the industrial process that breaks down fats in the milk.
Lorraine and Martyn Glover run a micro-dairy further west in Devon, and they are resolutely committed to staying small. Ashclyst Farm has grown to a herd of 75 cows, they produce 8,500 litres of milk a month and employ seven local people, selling their organic milk for around £1 a litre in the local shops (Tesco’s “pure fresh whole milk” currently retails at £1 a litre).
“But this is the limit now,” says Lorrain Glover. “We want to stay small and remain a micro-dairy so we’re not looking to increase in size further. There’s been great demand and a lot of local support. As a new supplier, we just hoped to have our milk alongside the other products available at the local village shops. But in many cases, shops have chosen to stock only our milk, which means whole villages around here are drinking local, organic milk.”
Micro dairies can also choose to provide a far more ethical alternative to mass-produced dairy products, says Fiona Provan. She launched her micro-dairy in Suffolk, nearly two years ago. She now sells licensed raw milk at the farm gate, local markets and on doorsteps via a delivery service.
The focus is very much on keeping welfare standards high to produce a quality product. The dairy has eleven cows, with between five and nine of them producing milk at any one time, which gives the dairy an average of 60 litres a day. The cows are grass-fed Jersey cows rather than grain fed – the dairy is certified by the Pasture Fed Livestock Association and the calves are kept with their mothers and not fully weaned until they are between eight and 10 months old.
Provan uses a small portable milking bale and milks the cows only once a day, to keep the cows stress-free. While the milk is still warm, it’s bottled before the cream separates and the bottles are then quickly chilled. “This chilling is the only ‘process’ the milk undergoes,” says Provan. “This is milk as it should be, and as it was before industry began to tamper with it.” At the farm gate, the raw milk costs £2.50 a litre and it costs about £3 a litre from the delivery service.
“It’s a premium product because it’s high welfare, and very high quality,” says Provan. “I’m not processing it and making yoghurts with fancy labels to get an inflated or premium price, this is a proper raw milk, one of the healthiest wholefoods you can consume.”
While there are still only a handful of micro-dairies in the UK, those who run them are enthusiastic about the alternative it offers consumers and the viable route into the industry that it offers would-be farmers. Start-up costs for micro-dairies can sound expensive – the cost of a cow depends on the breed but they can easily be £1,500 each – and you need a bit of kit to pasteurise and package milk. But there are grants and awards available for micro-dairies.
The farmers are keen to support newcomers and allow both interested consumers and prospective micro-dairy farmers to visit the dairies and get advice based on their own experience.
Many believe that this is exactly what we need farming to be: networks of micro-farmers who are able to meet the local food needs and offer consumers a long-term, sustainable alternative.
“I think you can earn a decent living from it too,” says Snelgar. “We’re always told that the only people who make money out of dairy are the mega farms. But I disagree. I’m aiming to earn £30,000 a year from this. That’s not a banker’s salary but it’s a good income, and the low start-up costs make running a micro-dairy an accessible option for those who want to work on the land.”
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