Alasdair Boden: It’s sad to see the dairy sector shrink

Looking out across the valley, I can see half a dozen farmhouses.

Fifty years ago they were all dairy farms, but now there’s just one. Three are holiday homes, another a fell farm and us, tinkering along.

But by the end of this winter the last dairy will have finished milking. It marks the end of an era for the valley and is sadly emblematic of a wider trend.

See also: Alasdair Boden – ‘accidental’ farmers bring fresh ideas

About the author

Alasdair Boden

Having been brought up in Kendal, Alasdair Boden returned to the Lake District in 2019 when he and his wife, Heather, bought a holiday cottage business. The 37-year-old describes himself as an “accidental farmer’ having later acquired the 40ha historically connected to the enterprise.

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Complete with its cobbled courtyard, my neighbour’s farm is a humble historic Lakeland holding from a bygone age, but at the same time it represents the future.

They skipped the industrialisation of milking with robots, keeping just a herd of 20 milkers.

Their nature-first policy from 60 years ago is aspirational for many now and they should be an example for a regenerative future. But instead, they are an example of the squeeze the industry is in. 

It’s not just a squeeze in price per litre, but the cost of collecting is on the rise and it’s barely economical for tankers to come all the way out to these small rural dairies. 

So, with a lack of support and incentive from government, they’ve decided to take control and bow out on their own terms. 

What makes it even sadder is that this is the last dairy farm not just in our valley but the area, and now leaves just one or two in the whole of the Lake District. 

This is an area once famed for milk and related produce. Nearby Buttermere is etymologically obvious, but even Keswick is Old English for “milk farm”. 

Perhaps my neighbour could carry on with a milk vending machine or make artisan cheese for visiting tourists. But that’s a lot of work, and who wants to deal with the general public anyway? 

So, sadly, this is an obituary for dairy farming, not just in the valley, but the wider industry as well.  

 As for the last dairy in the Naddle? Well they summed up the situation succinctly when they said they might just as well farm trees and weeds now. 

Happy retirement, even if it leaves me a little melancholic.