Our newventure selling milk to the public

Farming, like a lot of other industries, can be challenging at times. With world commodity prices being volatile to political changes at home we have to overcome each hurdle that is put in front of us.

Mother Nature also does her bit to test us and this winter has been one of the most challenging for a number of years. We haven’t seen such heavy snow in December for a long time. People blame the extreme weather on global warming, yet there was no global warming taking place when we were milking cows at 5.30am some mornings this winter!

Farming at the college throws up different challenges, often daily. Hopefully we overcome most of them. We try to stretch students’ knowledge while at the same time teaching them the basics. With this in mind we have secured funding to buy our own milk vending machine and pasteuriser. We will be selling our own milk daily to the public in the very near future.

This has been made possible with great help from Baschurch Parish Council and Müller Milk who we sell our milk to. Our aim is to teach students how, in an ever-changing market, farming can survive and bring quality products to the consumer locally.

We conducted market research before starting this venture and the two main issues people highlighted was the availability of local, fresh produce and secondly sustainability. So with this in mind students have chosen to offer reusable glass bottles for the milk.

So in 30 years we have come full circle with milk. There is now a reassurance in doorstep deliveries nationally and following major concerns with pollution, we are moving back to reusable glass bottles. Previously we have seen industries trying to cut costs by supplying a product in a ‘cheaper’ container but in the long term the cost to the environment is far greater.

Hopefully our students who are our next generation will not make the same mistakes.

The college is fast approaching the end of the academic year with exam season now upon us. We also look forward to welcoming new students in September when it starts all over again on the farm. We have just finished lambing which this year feels like it has been going on forever. The cows are finally out to grass and shearing and silage will be taking place soon. The work seems to be never ending at the moment.

The show season is also about to begin and North Shropshire College will be attending most of the shows across the county this summer. We will also be opening our doors for Open Farm Sunday on June 10, so please come along, say hello and support us.

Richard Aldis is Walford farm manager