Farmer Focus: Gary Mitchell reflects on his journey into dairy

I am celebrating my eighth year as a dairy farmer. On 25 September 2007 my first 129 cows were delivered in a redundant cubicle shed.

I rejuvenated a rented 8/16 milking parlour while work started at home converting the farm from bull beef finishing to dairy.

The first lift of milk on 26 September was 2,550 litres and First Milk paid me 18.541p/litre. So after 20 years of wanting to become a dairy farmer, my time had finally come.

See also: Learn more about Farmer Focus Livestock writer Gary Mitchell in his introductory column

I thought I had at last made it to the land of milk and honey. I remember my first ever First Milk regional meeting. It was quite a heated affair. As I sat in awe of it all, I remember one local farmer, Gilbert Service, shouting: “It is all about jam tomorrow!”

I never forgot this statement and it is so true. If we didn’t keep thinking this, we would all give up.

I decided to go into dairying after being on a rural leadership course in the early part of 2007.

This was to be life-changing in many ways. All of a sudden my farm became a business and it made me question whether we could influence agriculture through our political system.

But the biggest question it made me ask is what I wanted to achieve.

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I can assure you this is not as easy to answer as you think. I put this question to many young and old farmers and it is surprising how few really know.

I decided, first, I wanted my business to generate cash without subsidy. This is still in progress.

Second, I wanted to give as many young people a job working in dairying. This is a goal we have already achieved, as 80% of our staff are first-timers. Third, I wanted to host many school visits. About 200 children a year visit the farm.

I would love to see many more younger men and women take up these rolls. The biggest thrill of my job as NFUS milk chairman in 2012 was the people I met. Despite all the negativity, there are a lot of good operators out there who are very positive about our product.

Gary Mitchell milks 800 cows, with heifers reared on a local farm. Gary zero grazes 80ha of the 195ha he owns. He is regional board chairman for NFU Scotland.