Description
The Dairy Wagon owned by the Peak District Dairy Wagon Co Ltd is a mobile
creamery where Peak District farmers and their families can learn dairy skills.
The idea came about from a series of Dairy taster sessions organised in 2002 by
the Peak District National Park Authority and the University of Derby, using
special Government funds. They, with dairy farmer’s wife and Peak District
Foods project leader Sue Prince organised Making the most of your Milk, a
seminar and awareness raising event held in Buxton, attended by over 60 local
dairy farmers.
As a result of the seminar over 30 farmers went back to college- actually
Reaseheath College, Centre of Excellence for Dairy Technology at Nantwich, for
day long taster sessions. There they tried their hands at making cheese,
yoghurt, cream, soups and desserts. It was while Sue Prince and fellow farmer
Sarah Helliwell were elbow deep in cheese curds, having realised that it only
takes 8 hours to make cheese that they came up with the idea of a mobile dairy
teaching unit, driven by a technician, travelling from farm to farm.
As the new opportunities for local products swept the country with farmers’
markets and on-line sales, dairy farmers remained on the outside- they had no
products to sell. They had lost their dairy skills in 1933 when the Milk
Marketing Board was introduced.
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It would have cost approx £60-100K for a cheese making plant to be put on a
farm (including the income lost from milk going into maturing cheese for 6-12
months before any return from sales). Few farmers were able to invest this much
without any market testing and prior product development
It would cost approx £60K+ to have a cheese maker make cheese for a farmer
(£4.70+ per kilo, including income lost from milk sales, plus purchase of own
moulds and transportation of milk and cheese)
Because of very low returns for milk, farmers, although keen to collaborate,
have no money to invest in any co-operative dairy building.
It only takes 8 hours to make a hard cheese + overnight pressing
Between 2002 and 2005 Sue Prince as Development Leader and Tina Bowler, Company
Secretary, Ken Parker from PDNPA, Julie Robinson from the Country Land and
Business Association, local farmers and advisors all worked hard to try and get
funding for the innovative project. There was nothing like this in the world-
that was one of the problems!
With the help of Jane Avery from Leicester and County Co-operative Development
Agency (now called CaSE-da) the group formed a Social Enterprise co-operative
company in 2004, with Chairman John Stone and Chief Executive Officer Angus
Dalton.
Eventually, in February 2005 the opportunity arose for Sue Prince to present the
project to HRH Prince of Wales when he visited the Manifold Valley to meet
local food producers and farmers. His Royal Highness was very interested and
supportive of the idea and enlisted the help of his charity Business in the
Community to help raise funds and get the Dairy Wagon rolling!
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