In a bid to make ends meet, the Love family from Bridge of Aird, just outside Stranraer has always looked to maximise returns from their dairy herd and in doing so, they have diversified into pasteurising and bottling their own milk.
Between Andy and Christine Love and their daughter, Kayleigh, they milk 130 cows with assistance of one tractorman who does most of the fieldwork.
With the family having been tenants for 97 years, they aim to produce milk from picture perfect cows grazed outside for as long as possible during the summer months which in turn helps promote the milk they sell locally.
“Instead of super-sizing the business we wanted to explore how we could get more of a margin for the milk we sell which is why we turned our focus to local customers,” said Kayleigh, who looked into selling their own milk on farm in October 2021. A milk vending machine arrived in December 2021, with the whole process filmed through This Farming Life.
“We were selling pasteurised milk over the door hatch for a couple of months, but it was very time consuming as we had to be there all the time,” said Kayleigh, who really pushed the idea of the vending machine to the family.
“We spoke about it for years but of course Covid came around, so things did take a little longer than anticipated. Stranraer is a hard place to farm so we have to make the most out of our location, and engaging with tourists is the way to do that.
“I have always said it is about getting more for what you produce as opposed to doing more to get more,” she added, pointing out that it required a hefty six-figure investment to start pasteurising milk.
Producing their own milk to sell is also time consuming, with milk having to be drawn depending on the amount required each day, which is pasteurised at a low temperature (LTLT) and non-homogenised to retain the flavour and protein. All machines in the milk hut need cleaned and bottles need filling up on a daily basis when 12 different milk shake flavours are used.
Outwith their own milk shakes, the Loves have also installed a home baking and local produce vending machine, and provide milk to numerous local trade and hospitality businesses. On average 230litres of milk goes through the milk machine, and is very much dependent on the season, which equates to around 5-10% of the milk produced on the farm.
Last year the farm produced 1.2m litres of milk, with the remaining 90-95% sold through Lactalis for cheese making. Cows are milked twice a day through a 12-a-side swingover parlour which was installed in 2007.
“As our milk sells for cheese making, they pay a premium for components, so it is important we get the quality of our milk as well as the volume,” said Andy, who added that their milk averages 3.4%P and 4.2%BF.
Kayleigh said: “Even selling direct to the public, we want our butterfat levels to be as high as possible to maximise the taste. Milk tastes so much creamier with higher butterfat levels.”
To achieve this high-quality milk, perfecting the diet is essential, which is looked after by Davidsons Animal Feeds nutritionist, Michael Carruthers. Two cuts of silage are taken every year with last year’s analysing well at 28%DM, with a 68%D value, 10.9ME and 14.5% Crude protein.
Depending on the analysis of the silage, a partial total mixed ration is adapted to complement the forage. Cows are also provided a compound feed according to yield in the parlour. Currently the cows are being fed Elite 16 protein formulated for high yielding dairy cows.
Kayleigh added: “If you keep their stomach right, everything else seems to follow.
“We do find the diet does need to be managed carefully when the cows are put out to grass as milk quality does dip slightly, however it is a lot less labour intensive keeping them outside and it is also a bonus point having free range cows for our contract,” said Andy.
Cows are however housed in the winter in cubicles with mattresses and are bedded twice a day with sawdust, while an automatic scraper keeps the slats clean. Cubicles are also scraped down and rebedded with an anti-bacterial product twice a week to help kill off infections.
“As we do everything ourselves, we make sure everything is cleaned down every morning and night to improve cow health,” said Kayleigh.
Udder health and hygiene are important and somatic cell counts run at an average of 60 and Bactoscan at 10.
A Genus pedometer aids herd-monitoring and has helped improve herd performance, fertility, health and well-being.
The pedometer allows for more detailed monitoring of lying and standing time. The placement of the tag on the front leg allows for extremely accurate monitoring of behaviour and changes in activity which could be indications of an oestrus event or very early onset of disease.
It also highlights the best time to AI the cows, which is all done by a Genus technician. Calving takes place all year round, with heifers calving down at 26 months of age.
This is the first year the family has used sexed semen for the 30 heifers that are retained annually. The remainder of the herd is AI’d using beef semen to provide an alternative income.
“We only breed dairy calves that we need to retain, when housing for youngstock is restricted and it is time consuming rearing the calves. We would prefer to focus on our milking herd,” said Christine, adding that cows are AI’d to a British Blue sire and followed up with an Aberdeen-Angus with the resultant progeny sold at four weeks of age through Ayr market.
Looking to the future, the family aim to keep improving the herd and develop the diversification side of the business further.
“When things get tough rather than trying to produce more, we need to get more out of what we are producing. We are restricted by the amount of acres we have here and with the cow numbers we have, we are able to look after the herd ourselves.
“We are going to continue to focus on our bespoke product that local people support and look to be as sustainable as possible,” concluded the Love family.
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