Livestock Event 2014: A raw milk success

Reaping rewards from unpasteurised products is a growing industry. Gemma Claxton speaks to a raw-milk farmer doing just that.

Raw milk has transformed one Sussex dairy farmer’s fortunes, from a struggling organic enterprise to a thriving and expanding business.

Selling a product that dairy farmer Stephen Hook (pictured below) says bares resemblance to its pasteurised counterpart only in its colour and name, has seen him go from “price taker” to “price maker”.

“The only similarities are it’s called milk and it’s white. My raw milk is worth 10 times that of pasteurised,” says Mr Hook.

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“Going forward, we’re a strong, viable business that’s growing and diversifying. There is now a buzz about the place and money to reinvest,” he adds.

Mr Hook farms 74 Holstein Friesians with his father Phil on a mix of permanent pasture and perennial ryegrass leys on the Pevensey Levels.

The herd at Longleys Farm has been organically run since 2000, but just one year after its conversion, a falling milk price was a real concern. Under pressure financially, the future looked bleak.

“Pasteurised milk is seen as a commodity, no matter how much branding and provenance you give it. Everyone gets squeezed apart from the final seller and we were losing money. It was like looking down the barrel of a gun; I was forced to look for other ways to add value,” says Mr Hook.

Raw milk set up

After discovering farmers can legally sell their own raw milk, Mr Hook passed two consecutive tests from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to show a bactoscan score below 20,000 colony forming units (cfu)/ml and a coliform score under 100 cfu/ml. These tests were in addition to the routine dairy hygiene inspection by the FSA.

From its launch in January 2007, the business grew from a village doorstep round to nationwide delivery by February 2010. Mr Hook also attends eight farmers markets across London and says while others came and went, his stalls went from strength to strength. He now sells 3,500 pints a week to a nationwide customer base of 2,000, on top of the 800 pints a week delivered to local customers.

“People need their milk and butter every week as part of their staple diet but couldn’t get unpasteurised. They travelled to buy it and I realised the online business would work. Raw milk is not a commodity,” says Mr Hook.

Used to seeing people eye to eye and shaking hands to do a deal, Mr Hook says another benefit of direct selling is getting morale-boosting customer feedback. He is certain understanding both what the consumer wants and the properties of milk hold the key to his success.

“Milk has lost its way. We have a product the consumer wants rather than rows of homogenised pints with no identity. A larger percentage of the population is now more concerned about what they’re putting into their bodies and researching products. I certainly believe that raw milk, in terms of its properties and many health benefits, should always command a higher price.”

Mr Hook believes the story would have been somewhat different had he tried this 20 years ago, due to the amount of revenue generated from the online ordering system. But with customers paying 90p/pint for doorstep deliveries, £1.50/pint at farmers markets and between £1.50-£2/pint online – depending on volume ordered and location – it is clear that his mix of extensive traditional farming methods and modern e-commerce and marketing is working.

“I really hope the amount I charge for raw milk embarrasses the milk buyers [supermarkets] because the gap between ours and pasteurised is huge. Either their [pasteurised] product is poorer or farmers are not being paid enough for it.”

Turnover has grown from £120,000 a year before switching to raw milk sales, to £500,000 in 2013. This breaks down to a significantly higher margin over cost of production than farmgate prices, at about triple that of conventional dairy farmers.

The herd is yielding about 4,700 litres a cow a year, about 40% of which comes from forage and 3,000 litres from 1t of concentrate a cow. In winter, cows are fed a wheat- and maize-free TMR for human immunity benefits, says Mr Hook.

The cows are fed for maintenance plus 24 litres, spending their days strip grazing perennial ryegrass and red and white clover leys, followed by evenings on the marshland. It’s the combination of this richly diverse grass-fed diet and relaxed lifestyle that Mr Hook believes makes them better equipped to deal with any environmental or pathogenic challenges.

“We don’t use drying off remedies or teat sealant so pathogen control is critical. It takes around two hours to milk about 60 cows as we must have excellent hygiene during teat preparation and milking, as well as in our bottling plant and storage.”

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Mr Hook pays for an additional non-compulsory weekly lab test to analyse for a full spectrum of pathogens, which proved invaluable in a recent E coli investigation by raw-milk law regulators, the FSA. The tests held up the fact that his raw milk was not to blame. According to Mr Hook, there hasn’t been a single case of food poisoning from raw milk in the past 10 years and his customers are not concerned by best before dates as raw milk never goes bad, simply turning from fresh to sour.

The future

Investment has included upgrading the milk parlour to a stainless steel 10:10 herringbone, with new milk, vacuum and wash lines.

Mr Hook has expanded his product range to include cream, butter and ghee, and is currently looking at options for using what he considers his biggest waste product – raw skimmed milk. “In conventional dairies, the opposite is true and cream is the waste product,” he says.

He is looking for a second dairy unit to help with growth and as insurance against TB.

“If we get hit we’d still be able to service our customers,” says Mr Hook.

Demand for raw milk is growing and Mr Hook would encourage others to get on board, even if it means losing a few national customers along the way. “Farmers are perfectly able to become licensed and other people doing raw milk may attract more local customers.”