Farm of the Week: Family making dairy pay succeed against the odds

It is undeniable that the sector is in crisis and needs urgent change to remain viable in the UK.

However, there is a forgotten side of dairy farming that can be seen in Yorkshire and elsewhere, one that has produced impressive success stories against the odds through hard work and reliance on what has made the region's farmers so successful for centuries.

One such story can be found at West End Farm at Harpham, East Yorkshire.

Situated a few miles east of Driffield the village typifies the close-knit rural communities of the Yorkshire Wolds and is now home to an innovative and forward-thinking farm business that has won fans and customers for miles around.

It is the home of Peter and Sarah Burdass, who run a 270-acre dairy unit in the village.

In its fields live 185 Holstein cows with some Swiss Brown thrown in.

What makes West End Farm different is the change to the business side of the holding which Mr and Mrs Burdass have overseen in the last few years. The third generation of the family now run St Quintin's Creamery – where the family bottle and produce a variety of dairy products, produced exclusively from their own herd of cows.

In just a short couple of years the creamery has established a client base that spreads across East Yorkshire, venturing as far away as Hull, Market Weighton, Scarborough and Beverley.

As business has grown the family have had to bring in staff to cope with the demand – boosting rural employment at a time when the region's workforce so needs forward thinking entrepreneurs.

One might think the pair brought the business together gradually over many years but in truth the couple have simply thrown themselves into it, worked long hours and built it up rapidly since they took over a local milk round in 2008, an approach typical of many dairy farmers that I have met across the whole of the county. They both just wanted to make a change and saw offering a calf to bottle service as the means to do it.

Mrs Burdass said: "Peter has always lived for his cows and was fed up with being at the mercy of the big dairy processing companies who can just change prices on a whim. But he's been milking cows for 20 years and wanted to stick with it."

The desire to regain control over their work and lives coincided with the opportunity to take on the local milk round.

"Once we had bought the milk round there was no going back and since then life has been rather hectic," she said.

Eventually, after many meetings with support officers and officials they were able to get funding together to get their dream up and running. And, due to the fresh and wholesome quality of their products, they were soon able to get a client base together.

Thanks to the help of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development they were able to bring together processing equipment, a bottling plant and cold stores.

Mr Burdass said: "We like doing the little corner shops, small retail outlets, garden centres, restaurants and local milkmen. Hopefully more will come over to us."

"It is pretty much all local staff," Mrs Burdass said, with more than 10 people now employed by the farm and creamery.

"It is good to make a contribution to rural employment", she said. "One of our staff recently was made redundant and we were able to take him on."

As one would expect the process did not go quite according to plan as the Burdass's worked to get their bottling site, creamery and delivery routes on stream. Mr Burdass said: "The contract I had with my milk purchaser required that I gave a year's notice if I wanted to pull out. Not knowing where we'd be in a year with regards milk sales it was a bit of a gamble.

"We've been very lucky though in that Rock Farm Dairy near Durham have stepped in to pick up any surplus that we don't bottle ourselves."

The farm produces up to 38,000 litres a week from the herd of 185 Holsteins. While not a closed herd, Mr Burdass goes to stringent lengths to make sure any cattle he brings on to the farm are free from disease and of good quality.

The couple are united in the belief that milk should be drunk when it is fresh and not kept on shelves for weeks at a time, even adopting "So fresh it's almost embarrassing" as a slogan. The level of processing is kept very much to a minimum – as are the food miles with all of the work put into the products taking place on the West End Farm site.

Mrs Burdass said: "What we offer is a fresh, local product; it hasn't travelled round the country for days on a lorry, it's travelled the length of a barn from our milking parlour to our processing plant. As well as this we hope we give excellent service. We're often called up on a Sunday afternoon by customers who need more supplies and we'll always do our best to oblige. You cannot get that sort of care from the big suppliers. We don't work standard office hours because neither do our customers; they need to know you're there for them when they need you…. And we are!"

The couple will also be participating in Open Farm Sunday on June 13, offering visitors the chance to enjoy a hog roast as well as ice-cream from local producers. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will hopefully be on hand offering guided walks down to the Site of Special Scientific Interest alongside the most northerly chalk stream in the country as well as stalls offering local produce and other attractions.

Water and orange juice deliveries are another area the family are looking to get up and running in the near future, extending the service they offer to clients. Recently the couple sunk a 40-metre borehole into their land to access the natural spring water which runs underneath.

The couple derive obvious pleasure from the fact that their milk and wares are on sale throughout the local area and are very proud of the progress the business has made so far.

However, as with any new venture, it has not come without its challenges. "When I was getting started, someone told me that with a dairy you never stop spending" Mr Burdass said. "They were right."

For more information about their Open Farm Sunday or local suppliers contact St Quintin's Creamery Ltd on 01262 490083 or at www. stquintinscreamery.com

CW 22/5/10