'The biggest gamble of my life' - How buying five Jersey heifers saved this Yorkshire dairy farm

Last month, husband and wife James and Alex were back on The Yorkshire Post Rural Awards stage picking up their second award in three years, this time as Rural Business of the Year, with James’ parents John and Val in attendance too; ten days ago they picked up a Deliciously Yorkshire award for their gelato.

James says he gets emotional thinking about everything that has happened since he gave up his career with farm machinery giants AGCO.

“I remember vividly how close we were to not dairying at all. I was due back at the farm, but I was still down in Northampton.

"It was The Beast From the East weekend and dad was beyond worried, he had been awake for 24 hours trying to keep the robots defrosted because he knew once the milk lines were frosted up, we’d had it.

"I couldn’t physically get up the M1 to get to him.

“When we ordered the equipment for the first vending machine, out of the last of the money we had available, it was probably the biggest gamble of my life, but we wouldn’t be dairying now if we hadn’t done it.

“When we started off we were just selling 50 litres a day through it, but I was just happy that people were turning up.

"Now we’re close to selling nearly 50 per cent of what the cows produce through the vending operations. It’s now 1,500 litres a day being sold that way.

“It was going to Grey Leys Farm and buying those Jersey heifers that led to me seeing their vending machine in Elvington.

"That was how I got the idea, but it took me a long time to pluck up the courage to do it.

“We started with two. One on the farm and the other at Blacker Hall Farm Shop. They ticked along nicely from September that year.

"It was while I was away on a lads’ trip at the end of the year that Alex told me our lane was gridlocked with about 30 cars all the time, and our bottle machine was emptying as rapidly as she was filling it, carting them around in a wheelbarrow.

From that day on, we’ve never looked back.”

The Hills still pride themselves on being a family farm, but James says his role has changed completely.

“We now have a team of 27 on Milk From The Hills with 15 full-time, and it takes some managing.

"We have currently 11 vending machines, with our latest in Holmfirth having just started, this time not in a farm shop, but in a leased commercial unit in the town’s centre; another three are planned at other local towns for 2027.

“On the farm we now have our own office block and Ruth – our operations manager – makes it all tick.

"Ruth worked at Ed Garthwaite’s Blacker Hall Farm Shop and it was her I saw first when approaching Ed. Funny how life comes full circle.

“We opened the gelato parlour this summer in the old grain silo. It has gone ridiculously well.

"It’s based over two storeys and the big windows all around the top of the silo give children and adults a great view of the farmyard and what’s happening on farm.

“We’re also now selling thick shakes, waffles, gelato, apple crumbles from our own fruit off farm as we move into hot puddings, bottles, biscuits, our own merchandise with hoodies.”

James says that all of this activity and others planned, including Alex’s hopes of putting her primary school education career back to good use, is great news for the dairy farm.

“I can look around near us and see the number of dairy farmers that have disappeared even in my short lifetime.

"It is quite scary, and we could so easily have been one of them. I now have two full-time guys on the cows who I speak with every day.

“We are very much a self-sufficient dairy farm, in that we still grow wheat, spring barley and maize but it is all now pretty much grown to feed the cattle.

"This year we will have 70 acres of maize, 100 acres of winter wheat or spring barley, the rest is grass. Dad has always been more the arable farmer.

“Our dairy herd runs to 130, with 110 milking at any one time. We put two robotic milkers in eight years ago.

"We had been mostly black and whites but now we have around 30 Jerseys that we keep pure, having built up numbers from the five we bought from Grey Leys.

“We originally brought Jerseys into the herd to keep up our butterfat content for the milk we sell to Longley Farm.

"Jimmy (Dickinson) has been particularly good with us over our gradual increase of using our own milk.

"A lot of people couldn’t do what we have done, because dairies won’t generally let you sell more than a certain percentage yourself, but Jimmy has told us that if it means we’re going to survive that’s important to him.

"He sees one of his biggest issues in future being having enough dairy farmers around with enough milk to supply him.

“Alex would love to provide a new educational facility here too for people to see where their milk comes from.

"The idea might includes a bigger vending machine on farm and for it to have two storeys in it to include things such as a mini child’s size vending machine area, child’ s play area milking parlour and arable section.”

James and Alex are currently anticipating another new arrival on the farm, a sister or brother for Phoebe – as Alex is expecting, the baby due on Christmas Day.

“We’ve certainly a lot going on,” says James. “We’ve also a pop-up shop, with everything farm related, from tractors to puzzles and books. We’re also currently on with unhomogenised milk.

"It’s something that’s going wild in London at specialist coffee shops; and we’ve a bit of a thing with Recent Coffee Roasters in Wakefield.

“When we are at the Great Yorkshire Show we are known for our coffees, particularly in a morning; and from 10.30am it’s then just mad with milkshakes all day.

"It’s full-on, but it’s also the highlight of our year. Sometimes, when I get a quick comfort break, I get chance to see the queue and I go ‘Wow! Look what we’ve done.”