BUSINESS WINGS
SPREADING THEIR
BUSINESS WINGS
From four-wheel-drive to exotic nightwear –
how four dairy farmers are milking an
additional income. Janice Houghton-Wallace
talked to the finalists in the Strutt & Parker
Farm Diversification Awards 2001
THIS is the second year that farm consultants Strutt and Parker have held a farm diversification competition for the four counties of Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Hampshire. There were 19 entries, a figure that would no doubt have been higher were it not for foot-and-mouth.
All four winners were dairy farmers. Whether this is because the dairy industry has been through such a long, difficult time that milk producers have become adept at surviving is unclear. But all had clever and impressive additions to the core farming business.
The competition was based on six criteria: family expertise, the originality of the idea, profitability, employment provision, popularity and whether it could be copied by other farmers or not.