'I took over my family farm when my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's - I couldn't even milk a cow at the time'

So, husband Martin spent six months teaching her everything she needed to know to run Phipps Farm in the village of Lythe, near Whitby, and their herd of pedigree Holsteins.

She also wanted to make sure Martin’s long-held vision for them to sell produce direct from the farm was realised.

That dream led this summer, to Vanessa – who now manages Phipps Farm with son Lewis and daughter Beth – opening a milk vending machine selling fresh milk and flavoured milkshakes using milk from their own cows.

Vanessa said: “We thought we would really have to advertise it but it has gone from word of mouth and better than I thought it would be.

“I am getting a lot of comments from people saying it is not like supermarket milk, but it isn’t because it hasn’t been messed about with.”

The farm produces four core milkshake flavours – strawberry, chocolate, banana and white chocolate and raspberry.

Then, each week two or three rotating flavours are added, which could be salted caramel, lemon cheesecake or black cherry or biscoff, for example.

Vanessa puts a lot of the vending machine’s success down to people having more interest in where food comes from and an awareness of how tough farming is.

She said: “People want to talk, they want to know where food comes from, what the cows are eating and I am quite open about that.

“The cows are fed on grass, grain and silage, they are happy and outside in the fields. I know exactly what is in the milk and that is how I want it. It can be a week before milk gets from a farm to supermarket shops.

"We just carry it across the yard.”

The vending machine venture had been in the pipeline for a couple of years before being launched in July this year, but with low milk prices, it took time to raise the investment needed to pay for it.

Like many other independent family farms, the Dobsons have had to diversify to get a better price for their product.

Vanessa explained: “The government support is not there in the industry and all farmers really want is to be paid properly for what they produce.

“The milk price is so up and down so you can’t spend money on the farm or plan.

"This way I get paid a proper price for my milk and it is lovely when people say they like it and keep coming back for more – I get joy from that.”

Martin’s grandfather, Eric Dobson, started off by milking his eight cows and every day taking the milk to Sandsend in churns on a horse and cart, or horse and sledge in winter, and sold it door-to-door.

When he moved to a new farm he could have 30 cows and over time expanded the herd and the business where he was later joined by sons Keith and Alan and then Alan’s son Martin.