Keeping it all on the farm is the secret to success for the Ross brothers who run Lawns Farm and are behind the Morthern Milk brand

Opening a farm shop, bottling their own milk, selling direct and holding events such as their annual festival have been so successful, it saw them take last year’s British Farming Award for Family Farm Business of the Year.

“We’ve had plenty of challenges and there are new ones every day,” said George Ross, who along with his three brothers, Chris, Anthony and Laurence runs Lawns Farm.

A real family concern, the brothers are carrying on the legacy left by their late father David and grandfather, Jimmy. “When the milk price crashed we were advised to sell the herd and pack up, but that really put the bit between our teeth. We’d already started the farm shop which is run by Anthony, he’s the butcher, but we then decided to borrow and put in a processing plant and bottle our own milk.”

They incorporated the hamlet’s name and a message in their branding, calling it Morthen Milk and the business had been growing well since they started around five years ago. Then lockdown came.

“We lost our shop and café trade, but it was so busy here. Our doorstep delivery grew by 25-30 per cent with most of that increase in the first two weeks of lockdown.

“It was a crazy time, we deliver every day to a radius of around ten miles and we were doing 20-hour days just to keep up with demand.

“Fortunately, demand rose right at the time our cows were giving their spring flush.

“We also have flexibility with the herd as we have around 180-200 cows with only 50 as dairy cows, so we could bring some of the others into the dairy herd if we needed to.

“The rest of the herd is there to produce the beef we then sell in the farm shop. These cows are put to Lewis the Longhorn, our bull. And we use AI on the predominantly Holstein Friesian herd.

“When the rush in demand came for doorstep delivery at the beginning of lockdown I was a bit sceptical about how long the customers who came to us would stay.

“I thought when things calmed down they may leave but we’ve had a really good reaction and customers have commented on taste difference between our milk and the milk they were buying before.

“Ours is taken from the cow, bottled and delivered all within hours.

“Those who have been self-isolating have been so appreciative and because doorstep delivery is new to many people on our round we have had questions about what to do with the bottles when they are empty.

“When we tell people how it works, how good glass bottles are for the environment, that we collect the empties, clean them every day and how easy it is to order and change your order to what suits, people are genuinely very happy.

“We’re now receiving even greater numbers wanting doorstep delivery as a result of neighbours telling others and currently have two vans out on the road delivering every day.”

Lawns Farm runs to around 200 acres with a mix of permanent pasture, grass grown for silage and maize. Three cuts of silage usually ensures self-sufficiency for the herd which George said, is never pushed for milk production.

“Once we’ve harvested the maize, usually in the first week of November, we put in a fast-growing grass called Tornado that becomes a real silage bunker filler in May at first cut. A few weeks ago when the rains came it was a real blessing as we’d drilled the maize and the mini drought meant nothing was growing.”

George said he likes to see the cows enjoying their grazing in their natural way.

“It’s like the cows are on permanent holiday throughout their lives here, and that’s what we like for them.

“It’s a low input/low output system and they have a wonderful time grazing the pastures. Most of our cows will give at least nine or ten lactations, producing an average of around 5,000-6,000 litres each time.

“We use all the milk from the dairy herd for our doorstep sales and we also supply local ice cream and cheese producers with the milk they need.”

There is also a new look to the Ross’s dairy herd this year as George has introduced the eye-catching Dutch Lakenvelder dairy breed alongside the Holstein Friesians.

“We’ve introduced our first Lakenvelders this spring. They are very distinctive as they look like the Belted Galloway and are also known as the Dutch Belted. They are either brown or black with a white middle section.

“Our herd has a dual purpose as it doesn’t just provide the milk for Morthen Milk, it also produces Longhorn Cross beef for the farm shop. The shop has been very busy during the pandemic with more customers buying locally. We stock our own beef, with lamb and pork from neighbouring farms plus other local produce. We also have a fruit and vegetable stall, flowers stall and serve coffee.”

George’s girlfriend, Kate, works in the farm shop and he said it had become a “visitor destination”.

For the past five years George and his brothers have run a successful festival called FarmFest. A day of live music, food and farming which takes place during the August bank holiday weekend. And while many events have already been cancelled this summer George said they have not made that decision yet.

“We would love to put it on again this year. The beauty of Farmfest is that it doesn’t take too long to organise if we make a late decision, but obviously we will only go ahead if government advice is that we can.”

George said gaining recognition for their work at the national British Farming Awards had been “fantastic”. “We have all put so much effort into making sure the farm is successful and it’s nice to be recognised.”