Livestock farmer’s all set to dive into ice cream business

It is nearly autumn and we have now got first and second cut in the pit and having looked in my diary, I note that this year we are approximately a month behind last year. That is what the good British weather does for you – I can’t think of a run of days this year when there has just been sun.

I have just got first-cut silage tested and surprisingly, it is a little damper than last year at 21% dry matter, with an ME of 10.9 and proteins at 13.8% and D value at 68.4%. Being wetter it is also a little bit higher in lactic acid than we’d like, but nothing an acid buffer won’t sort.

I wish it was as simple as just doing your job well and reaping the rewards, but farming has become so much more complicated and one big gamble. It is because of this and the fact that we are just not in a position to expand we have decided to try a different route.

In my last column I said I would reveal what my latest project has been and I am finally able to announce the birth of “Wensleydale Ice Cream”. We were finally signed off by environmental health as fit to go – and so a new era begins. We have been testing our flavours out on all who are willing and so far the feedback has been really good. So the old calf house has done us proud. Watch this space…

Adrian Harrison farms 81ha (200 acres) in partnership with his father Maurice in Wensleydale, Yorkshire. He runs 130 pedigree Jersey cows with 70 followers, with milk sold to Wensleydale Creamery, Hawes, and used to make real Wensleydale cheese

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