Glass half full for dairy optimist

Who would want to be a dairy farmer in Yorkshire these days? A recent report from the National Farmers Union says the figures simply don’t add up for it as a viable way of life.

The NFU’s dairy board chairman Mansel Raymond described the figures as “stark”. Although prices have started to move up, this is a drop in the ocean and for many it could be too little, too late. The average cost to a farmer for producing a litre of milk is 29.1 pence but what he is paid for it is 25.94 pence. Compare this with the situation in Canada. Their dairy farmers are getting 44 pence per litre.

In the UK the gap of 3.16 pence per litre between expenditure and income, if calculated across the average dairy herd of 120 cows producing around 7,000 litres a year per cow, works out at a loss to a farmer close to £30,000.

Looking at these figures, how can the dairy farming industry continue in this country? Some experts do think it has a future however and one of them is James Waterhouse. A young man with a young family, he’s unfazed by the despair shown in some quarters.

“I have upped the herd size here from 65-70 cows to around 100,” he says. “That was the only way I could keep our heads above the water. If we get a better milk price I would like to put up another shed and increase cow numbers to the 125 mark. I’ve also put a new parlour in and a slurry lagoon. It’s not a great situation to be in but we are doing okay.

“We are all being squeezed at the moment by supermarkets who are having a price war. We just need to see light at the end of the tunnel. One of our problems in Yorkshire is that there isn’t much of a choice of milk buyers to go to. There’s no real competition to buy your milk. We have just received a rise in price, but we need more in order to be able to reinvest in the farm in the future.”

And it’s reliable future prospects which he needs. James is married to Nicola and they have a young family, with daughters Mia and Anna.

Spiralling feed and bedding costs have been the biggest recent headache adding to others which have led to 13,000 throwing in the towel over the past decade. One of them was one of the UK’s leading younger dairy farmers – Andrew Anderson of Inverness-shire who quit his 300-strong Dairy Gold Cup winning enterprise. His cows were producing a phenomenal 14,000 litres a year and still he was making no money. Like all dairy farmers his lifestyle was geared to milking three times a day, in his case at 3.30am, 1pm and 8pm.

As one of the 15,000 who remain, James Waterhouse isn’t thinking that way. He is happy at Fourth Milestone Farm four miles north east of York on the A64 because he is now fully in control since buying out his father’s share. He is also ambitious to make money out of breeding Ayrshire cows and he is a regular competitor at the Great Yorkshire Show.

“I want to be in a position like the lad who won the last Royal Show. He’s milking Ayrshires and milking enough of them that in certain months he can sell six or seven cows without making a difference to his output. I’m on the Ayrshire Cattle Society Council and the breed is on the rise at the moment. I think that’s partly because people have lost their way a bit with black and whites. They may look as though they produce more milk than Ayrshires, but the Ayrshire cow lasts longer and that means it produces more over a longer period.

“One of the main benefits is the hardiness of the Ayrshire which means that your vet bill is not as large.”

James grows his own maize for feed and produces silage from his grassland. The farm runs to just over 300 acres with half of it down to combinable crops. He has a share farming arrangement with his neighbour and best friend Jonathan Rycroft which includes leaving James with the straw from harvest. “We have a sort out at the end of the year to see whether he owes me, or I owe him. It works well.”

One of the most common causes of family break-ups on farms is stress, related to poor prices, increased costs and working constantly. James acknowledges the need for family time and has altered his work routine accordingly.

“I now have a weekend lad who comes in to do the milking on a Saturday so that I can spend time with my family. The other six days I milk twice a day at 6am and 4pm so that I’m finished for 7pm.

“Will it all work out? Ask me in a year or two when things have settled down.”

There’s something about James’s smile that seems to offer hope for other young dairy farming families. Ultimately though it’s the milk buyers who hold the key.