Published by Farmers Guide, October 2007.

Pictured outside the new Nortons Dairy premises
are (l-r): Philip, Emily and David Norton.

On-farm processing proves an instant success

Like the majority of the UK's dairy farmers, the Norton family, based at Frettenham, just north of Norwich, have been hit by low milk prices in recent years.

The fact that not all 370 acres at Church Farm are given over to dairy farming means that there is also revenue coming in from malting barley, durum wheat, rye, sugar beet and some potatoes grown on rented ground, but with the milk bringing in little more than 16.5p/litre in 2005, the dairy enterprise - and the family's whole way of life - was under threat.

While many dairy farmers in the same situation have thrown in the towel, the Nortons were keen to find a way to keep the milk enterprise viable and turn its fortunes around for two very good reasons: they enjoyed the way of life and the farm supported three households.

A true family-run business, Philip Norton looked after the arable enterprise while his cousin, David, managed the dairy herd; plus there was one full-time farm worker to pay as well.

The answer to low milk prices came from Philip's daughter, Emily, who was studying for a Masters Degree in Sustainable Farming at Harper Adams.

"I did a research project on liquid milk as part of my studies and realised that there was good potential for processing and selling milk off the farm," Emily told Farmers Guide. "I knew there were other farms in Norfolk making ice cream and cheese, but few had gone down the producer-retailer route."

While the idea, in principle, was sound, the decision to invest in processing facilities still took a lot of thought and visits to see other producer-retailers around the country. The fact that David had long held his own ambitions to process and sell the herd's milk helped in the decision, while the realisation that the price differential between what Church Farm was getting for its milk from the dairy and what it sold for in the supermarket was £112,000/year helped win Philip's support for the scheme.

"Another incentive for me was that by starting our own dairy, we could justify bringing Emily into the business when she left Harper Adams," Philip said. "It was also clear to David and I that bringing in new blood would be vital to getting the scheme off the ground."

Emily was just as keen to be able to come back to Norfolk to work and saw the contribution she could make.

"Dairy processing is completely different from farming," she said. "It's an entirely new concept and it needs people who can dedicate themselves to taking on the work."

With no suitable existing buildings near to the milking parlour, a site was identified close to the farmhouse at Church Farm and a new, food-grade building was erected for processing the milk.

"We did as much of the work ourselves as possible," Philip said. "We got several quotes for the work and some of them were just astronomical. By working with people we already new, we were able to get exactly the building we needed, but at a price we could afford."

While construction was underway, the family was kept busy finalising arrangements for the processing equipment that would be required and setting about finding customers for the farm's milk.

"Whenever we went to a local farm shop or independent store, we'd ask whether they would be interested in taking a supply," she said. "We were lucky that we had already signed up a milkman at Aylsham who was keen to source all his supplies from us for his doorstep round, but we would still have to sell some milk ourselves and I'd heard horror stories of other processors driving around trying to sell vanloads of fresh milk in their first weeks in the business."

Following approval from the local Environmental Health department, Nortons Dairy began processing milk in mid-June with the initial target of processing 200 litres of milk every two days. Just six weeks later, however, the production of the farm's pasteurised, unhomogonised milk is running at between 600-700 litres every two days, with supplies going to the Aylsham milk round, seven or eight wholesale customers and the family's own milk round in the Frettenham area.

"We now have about 40 doorstep customers," Emily said. "We picked up quite a few when we did a tasting session at the local fete, and we have also advertised in our parish magazine.

"The product sells itself, really, because it is so fresh, but we're also selling on service because we deliver between 4-6pm at night when people tend to be at home and they can take the cold milk straight into the house."

The evening deliveries are not only a good selling point with customers, they also allow the most efficient use of resources as it allows the processing to be done in the morning, wholesale deliveries to be carried out after lunch and doorstep deliveries in the late afternoon.

Things are going so well that the Nortons have already placed an order for a more automated bottling plant to allow them to expand sales.

"We've got plenty of capacity in the pasteuriser, but what really takes the time is filling the milk bottles," Emily said. "We have a manual bottle filler that we bought locally, but it really quite slow, so we plan to replace it with a more automated system before we go out and look for any more sales."

Nortons Dairy is selling milk in one-pint, two-pint and four-pint poly bottles. These suit the business because it does away with the problems of dealing with glass bottles, but they know that Norfolk's local authorities provide recycling facilities for the material.

The Norton family is happy with how things are going. Their dairy company is selling its milk with a recommended retail price of £1.50 for four pints (compared to the typical supermarket price of £1.15-1.20). The quality of the product means that selling it at that price has not been a problem, although Emily has already come under pressure from one wholesale customer to commoditise the product.

"One independent outlet we supply is selling our milk alongside product from one of the major processors," Emily said. "The owner has already said that he'd be keen to only stock our milk if we bring the price down, but that's not the route we want to take. We're building a quality brand that we're proud of and it's well worth the premium price it attracts."

The farming business is now receiving 21p/litre from Nortons Dairy for the milk it takes for processing, which Philip and David consider a fair return, and it's certainly far better that the price the family was getting from Dairy Crest two years ago.

As Dairy Crest will not allow its producers to process any of their own milk, the family now supplies the balance of the farm's 1,500 litres/day production to Dairy Farmers of Britain. And even though farm-gate milk prices have improved a bit recently, the milk the Nortons sell to their own dairy still represents a nice premium, as well as a way of taking more control of their destiny and contributing to the way of farming and way of life the family is so keen to support.

*****

Dedicated to sustainable farming

The Nortons at Church Farm are happiest following their own path when it comes to farming their land. They were members of a local farming group several years ago, but left when they didn't like the way the group was heading.

"We felt we were being forced into contract farming our arable land and that was not the way we wanted to go," Philip Norton said.

The family prefers to run a sustainable system and the whole farm is in a rotation that includes long-term grass leys and a mixture of arable crops that are chosen as much for the benefits they bring to the soil as for their financial returns.

"We bale all the straw from our cereals and use it for bedding livestock," Emily Norton said. "All the muck is then spread back on the land and we only apply whatever inorganic fertiliser is needed to balance the requirements of the growing crops."

It's just as important, however, that the farm is able to support the family and its lifestyle. Philip sums it up by saying that living and working at Church Farm means that he enjoys every single day of life, and he's keen for that to remain a reality for the whole of his extended family.

And the new dairy may well help make this possible. In addition to the families supported by Church Farm two years ago, Emily is also now able to make a living, while the new dairy has provided additional work for David's wife, Ruth, and his sister, also called Ruth.