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01/07/2008 14:58:08
Efficiency bonus takes funding to a third of Cornish farms
Surprise milestone for Dairy Collect
Efficiency bonus takes funding to a third of Cornish farms
Dairy Collect, the Cornwall Enterprise service improving sustainability in the Cornish milk industry, has now awarded funding to over a third of all Cornwall's dairy farms, after efficiency savings enabled six extra projects to go ahead.
The Objective One-funded programme helps farms to fund improvements to their milk storage and collection arrangements to cut costs, maximise income and yield environmental benefits, making the industry more sustainable in the long term.
Careful management throughout the three-year scheme has produced a significant underspend in Dairy Collect's administration budget, allowing a five-figure sum to be diverted back into the grant pot.
The additional money will be used to help an additional six farms, taking the number of projects supported to 218, and passing the landmark one-third of Cornwall's 646 dairy farms in the process.
Dairy Collect manager Elizabeth Gilbert said: "We've tried to run a tight ship throughout the life of the scheme, and it's very satisfying to see those efforts rewarded in the shape of lasting improvements to even more Cornish farms."
One farmer to benefit directly from the extra funding is Fred Hinchliffe, who will receive a 40% grant towards the installation of a new, 12,000-litre bulk milk tank on his tenant farm at the County Council's Trerice estate, near St Newlyn East.
He explained: "The new tank will help us to increase our production, cleans itself automatically and significantly reduce our energy usage – which reduces our carbon footprint and cuts back on an increasingly important production cost.
"It looks like times are improving for farmers, and, with the extra scale we're taking on, we'll be well placed to make the most of that."
Between them, Dairy-Collect projects will now cut costs and add or safeguard milk sales totalling £8.8 million per year; meaning Cornwall's dairy industry as a whole is now 25% healthier as a result of improvements made through the service.
Meanwhile, an increase in farms able to store milk for longer, with access for larger dairy tankers, has also made milk collection more sustainable.
Harry Rowse, of scheme partner Dairy Crest in Davidstow, says: "Dairy Collect has definitely contributed to measurable cost improvements throughout the milk collection operation. Alternate day collections and access improvements mean we can operate with greater efficiency."
John Berry, managing director of Cornwall Enterprise, commented: "Thanks to the excellent work of the Dairy Collect team, Cornwall's dairy industry is in significantly better shape than it might have been, and can look to the future with confidence.
"There's good news for the rest of us, too. Next year, there will be 32,000 fewer milk tanker collections in Cornwall thanks to these improvements. That's an immense reduction in mileage reducing congestion, pollution and carbon footprint, which benefits everyone."
Farmer Fred Hinchliffe, Trerice, St Newlyn East
Fred and Sheryl Hinchliffe have been tenant farmers on Cornwall County Council's historic Trerice Estate for over ten years, and are in the process of expanding from 115 to 194 acres, to accommodate a doubling of their existing pedigree Jersey herd to 200 cows by over three years.
(To illustrate the increasing importance of scale in modern farming, the expansion means Fred and Sheryl will be farming five of the original ten 40-acre farms established by the Council in 1925).
To cope with the increased milk production from the new herd, the Hinchliffes are replacing their two, small milk tanks (combined capacity 3,500 litres) with a new, state-of-the-art 12,000 litre bulk tank, thanks to a 40% Objective One grant via Cornwall Enterprise's Dairy Collect service.
The new tank will ensure the farm can maintain alternate day milk collection, even in high-producing months, for the foreseeable future, with the capacity to cope with a herd size of 300.
Moreover, because the milk is cooled much faster and more efficiently, hygiene and quality can be ensured with a much lower energy bill. An automatic cleaning cycle will also save on the perilous and time-consuming job of hand-scrubbing with chemicals after each collection.
Fred says: "Thanks to Dairy Collect, it has been much easier to achieve the scale the farm needs to be sustainable and competitive in the future. We can even accommodate a further 100 cows, should the opportunity arise, and still maintain every-other-day milk collection.
"Likewise, we'll see significant reductions in our electricity usage at a time when energy prices are rocketing, and we are cutting our carbon footprint too. We're effectively future-proofing our business, for the medium term at least."
 |
Efficiency bonus takes funding to a third of Cornish farms
Dairy Collect, the Cornwall Enterprise service improving sustainability in the Cornish milk industry, has now awarded funding to over a third of all Cornwall's dairy farms, after efficiency savings enabled six extra projects to go ahead.
The Objective One-funded programme helps farms to fund improvements to their milk storage and collection arrangements to cut costs, maximise income and yield environmental benefits, making the industry more sustainable in the long term.
Careful management throughout the three-year scheme has produced a significant underspend in Dairy Collect's administration budget, allowing a five-figure sum to be diverted back into the grant pot.
The additional money will be used to help an additional six farms, taking the number of projects supported to 218, and passing the landmark one-third of Cornwall's 646 dairy farms in the process.
Dairy Collect manager Elizabeth Gilbert said: "We've tried to run a tight ship throughout the life of the scheme, and it's very satisfying to see those efforts rewarded in the shape of lasting improvements to even more Cornish farms."
One farmer to benefit directly from the extra funding is Fred Hinchliffe, who will receive a 40% grant towards the installation of a new, 12,000-litre bulk milk tank on his tenant farm at the County Council's Trerice estate, near St Newlyn East.
He explained: "The new tank will help us to increase our production, cleans itself automatically and significantly reduce our energy usage – which reduces our carbon footprint and cuts back on an increasingly important production cost.
"It looks like times are improving for farmers, and, with the extra scale we're taking on, we'll be well placed to make the most of that."
Between them, Dairy-Collect projects will now cut costs and add or safeguard milk sales totalling £8.8 million per year; meaning Cornwall's dairy industry as a whole is now 25% healthier as a result of improvements made through the service.
Meanwhile, an increase in farms able to store milk for longer, with access for larger dairy tankers, has also made milk collection more sustainable.
Harry Rowse, of scheme partner Dairy Crest in Davidstow, says: "Dairy Collect has definitely contributed to measurable cost improvements throughout the milk collection operation. Alternate day collections and access improvements mean we can operate with greater efficiency."
John Berry, managing director of Cornwall Enterprise, commented: "Thanks to the excellent work of the Dairy Collect team, Cornwall's dairy industry is in significantly better shape than it might have been, and can look to the future with confidence.
"There's good news for the rest of us, too. Next year, there will be 32,000 fewer milk tanker collections in Cornwall thanks to these improvements. That's an immense reduction in mileage reducing congestion, pollution and carbon footprint, which benefits everyone."
Farmer Fred Hinchliffe, Trerice, St Newlyn East
Fred and Sheryl Hinchliffe have been tenant farmers on Cornwall County Council's historic Trerice Estate for over ten years, and are in the process of expanding from 115 to 194 acres, to accommodate a doubling of their existing pedigree Jersey herd to 200 cows by over three years.
(To illustrate the increasing importance of scale in modern farming, the expansion means Fred and Sheryl will be farming five of the original ten 40-acre farms established by the Council in 1925).
To cope with the increased milk production from the new herd, the Hinchliffes are replacing their two, small milk tanks (combined capacity 3,500 litres) with a new, state-of-the-art 12,000 litre bulk tank, thanks to a 40% Objective One grant via Cornwall Enterprise's Dairy Collect service.
The new tank will ensure the farm can maintain alternate day milk collection, even in high-producing months, for the foreseeable future, with the capacity to cope with a herd size of 300.
Moreover, because the milk is cooled much faster and more efficiently, hygiene and quality can be ensured with a much lower energy bill. An automatic cleaning cycle will also save on the perilous and time-consuming job of hand-scrubbing with chemicals after each collection.
Fred says: "Thanks to Dairy Collect, it has been much easier to achieve the scale the farm needs to be sustainable and competitive in the future. We can even accommodate a further 100 cows, should the opportunity arise, and still maintain every-other-day milk collection.
"Likewise, we'll see significant reductions in our electricity usage at a time when energy prices are rocketing, and we are cutting our carbon footprint too. We're effectively future-proofing our business, for the medium term at least."
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