Brave new dairy venture is starting up in North Wales

Guest blog: by Gwyn Jones

Whilst in North Wales a couple of weeks ago I accepted an invitation to visit the new dairy factory on Anglesey which is almost finished and will be taking milk from June. This is a factory built by a large dairy farmer on the Llyn Peninsula, David Wynne-Finch, with partnerships and joint venture agreements with others.

David Wynne-Finch has a large herd of spring-calving cows and has other joint ventures with young farmers who he has set up with share-farming agreements; many of whom now have very large herds of their own.

David Wynne-Finch’s dairy farm

They all operate on the New Zealand model of a tight spring-calving block calving system with all cows calved in around six weeks and milk from grass through the spring and summer with very little concentrates.

This is a very low-cost system which suits dairy farmers in the western side of the UK where there is plenty of rainfall to ensure good grass growth throughout the season.

They are very often able to graze good grass right through the autumn, and as winter arrives the cows are dried off and spend their time out grazing or housed.

Our dairy industry in this country is based upon the all year-round calving model practiced by most dairy farmers, but in Sussex we do have the reverse model to spring block calving on some farms who calve their cows in a tight block in the autumn and when winter arrives house them and feed them through to turn-out in the spring.

This is also a simple but very effective way of dealing with the fact that in the eastern side of the UK we do not often have an abundance of grass, but in the spring large quantities of grass silage can be made and we grow maize for silage very well.

The cows on the autumn block system are dry when the July/August dry spell arrives, and it all works very well.

The reason block calving (whether in the spring or autumn) is so very effective is that the management of the herd is much simpler due to all the cows having calved at the same time and are therefore at the same stage of lactation.

This means that the cows are all calving together, put back in calf together and dried off together at the end of lactation.

This enables everyone to concentrate on one task at a time.

Yes, it is very busy around calving, but extra help can be brought in or if well set up it is not that difficult as it is the main and only event.

Spring calving is a lower cost and even simpler system as all the milk comes from grazing cows and there is very little winter housing and feeding involved.

However, this glut of spring milk is not as valuable due to the fact that all other cows in the country are turned out to grass in the spring, with an increase in production which puts a great deal of stress on dairy companies who buy and process the milk.

Autumn block calving herds on the other hand produce the bulk of their milk during the autumn/ early winter trough period when there is a real demand for milk due to the dry weather affecting grass growth.

The dilemma therefore for the spring block calver is how best to sell their spring milk as all companies operate a penalty system which punishes spring production and encourages late summer/autumn production.

The low-cost block spring calving herds do therefore lose a great deal of potential income due to the harsh penalties on spring milk.

In New Zealand the whole country is geared up for spring production as the block spring calving system is practiced by all dairy farmers and factories are shut for maintenance during the winter period when there is little or no milk produced.

The block spring calving herds in the UK are therefore disadvantaged due to the fact that almost all the herds in the UK calve all year round and the dairy factories are geared for, and demand a level supply of milk, rewarding and punishing in order to achieve that.

Hence the excitement around this new factory on Anglesey; built to take block spring calving milk and pay a higher price for it.

The factory will of course take milk from other farms, the drive behind the venture is to reward dairy farmers with a higher price; especially block spring calving.

The factory will initially produce cheddar cheese and it will be sold immediately to a company which will take delivery of it and mature, cut and pack the cheese and sell it.

In time the factory will produce other hard cheeses such as Gouda, Edam and Emmental, all sold in the same way to the joint venture company.

The whey will be concentrated and taken away for processing but not to the company which currently takes all the whey in Wales.

Both the cheese and whey will be exported and the factory is no threat to South Caernarfon Creamery not far away; apart from the competition for farmers and given that South Caernarfon has little interest in block spring calving herds, that is not a worry.

Farmers on the other hand have another buyer in Wales which can only be a good thing and are looking at the contract and terms and conditions attached to the new factory.

Attracting farmers and enticing them away from current milk buyers is not easy and contracts need to be attractive.

An offer to pay farmers weekly rather than monthly is novel and will be a good start, not penalising fat will be another attraction; paying the same amount per kg for fat and protein whereas the norm is to pay less for fat.

Transparent pricing will be another novel feature, where the farmer can see the costs of processing, transport, etc deducted from the headline milk price and as this is a low-cost operation, those charges should be very competitive.

In the interest of sustainability, the factory will be run as efficiently as possible with many environmentally friendly innovations.

The fleet of large, rear-steer articulated road tankers picking up the milk around North Wales will all be battery powered which is a first and, more than likely, a sign of things to come?

I thought this move to be risky, but I was assured that these Volvo electric trucks have a range of more than 200 miles and will complete a round of pickups from dairy farms in the area and deliver the milk to the factory easily, before needing a charge.

I sincerely hope that this brave venture goes well and farmers signing up will, after 12 months, be able to leave with three months notice if they wish.

That shows confidence and is not available from any other dairy company.

We have had a few failures in the dairy industry when new ventures have been started, often with farmers’ money and I will be interested to see if farmers sign up to supply milk to Mona Dairy on Anglesey.

I hope they do and I hope it will all work out as it is certainly novel and an opportunity for all farmers; spring calvers in particular.

About the author:

Born into a farming family in North Wales, Gwyn has over 30 years experience as a dairy farmer, running a 350 cow herd. He has a long history as an active member of the NFU as National Dairy Board Chairman and then Vice President.

Gwyn is Chairman of RUMA (Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture), Vice Chairman of EPRUMA, Chairman of the COPA-Cogeca Animal Health and Welfare Working Group, he is an active member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council, a member of the British Veterinary Association Welfare and Ethics Group, and a member of the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine’s External Liaison and Advisory Committee.