The Dann family have been farming in North Tuddenham in the UK for four generations, but dramatic decreases in milk prices have encouraged them to think of new ways to run their business more efficiently.
Simon Dann, owner of Pound Farm, said: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for dairy farmers to stay afloat. Retail milk prices are the lowest they’ve been for seven years and processors have forced further price cuts on thousands of dairy producers like us. Some farmers now get 5p a litre less than the milk costs to produce.”
Since demonstrations by dairy farmers in June, a number of supermarkets and milk processors have raised the price of milk, but farmers are far from out of the woods. Simon believes that dairy farmers are likely to take further action against supermarkets and milk processors in the future, but that they can also help themselves by being business savvy.
It was for this reason that the Danns decided to have three small-scale wind turbines installed at the farm to save on electricity bills now and to hedge against future energy price rises.
Simon added: “Farmers need to assess where they can save money and make practical steps to do so. For us, energy prices have been a worry as we have seen our electricity bills rise sharply over the last couple of years. This is why we started looking into renewable energy.”
Pound Farm, which has two free range poultry sites and one dairy unit with a herd of over 100 pedigree Holstein-Friesian cows, has had three small turbines installed by Norfolk-based company Windcrop Ltd at the dairy and Mowles Manor, one of the poultry sites.
These turbines are used to power the farm’s ice cream business, which the Danns set up in 2007 as a way to add value and as a more profitable use for the milk produced at the farm.
Simon said: “The bills at the ice cream parlour have already gone down from £1,000 to £750 per month, which is a really noticeable change.”
Reducing the energy bills for the ice cream business has helped the Danns to continue with this extremely successful way of generating an extra source of income.
Simon added: “The ice cream we make stands out because we use our own milk and eggs combined with excellent local produce, such as lavender, honey and fruit, to ensure we make our products to an extremely high standard.
“We can also create bespoke flavours on demand and now have over 600 recipes. The strangest flavour combination we have ever created is probably marmite and bacon, but we have also done asparagus and white wine, and jam and rice pudding.
“The whole family helps with the day to day running of the parlour, including making the ice cream by a unique handmade process. My son Alex runs the dairy now, where the milk can go from the cow to ice cream in under an hour, and we supply local shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes, farm shops, supermarkets and events.”
This and other innovative ideas for reducing outgoings and increasing profits have helped Simon and his family to continue to run a successful business during a difficult time for dairy farmers.
Simon concluded: “We can’t continue to sell milk at a loss. We need to do everything we can to reduce costs and add value at our end. Starting the ice cream business and cutting down on our energy costs have helped us to do this, and we plan to have more small turbines installed on the farm so we can save even more on our bills.”
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