Sit with the Gould family round their kitchen table and you’ll certainly not go short of genuine Lancashire hospitality - the fact this kitchen is in the heart of Shropshire makes no difference at all.
The Goulds, and their Woodmarsh herd of pedigree Holsteins, are now firmly established in their home of the past 13 years at Bomere Heath, Shrewsbury.
And at the heart of this success is a family still loyal to its Lancashire roots. Michael and Jean Gould have certainly come a long way from the two county council smallholdings in Lancashire that gave them their first leg-up on to the farming ladder in the 1960s.
But 1993 - and still on the county council smallholding at Tower View, Hutton, Preston - the herd turned a corner. The average yield topped 10,000kg.
Today, 15 years later at its home on the 330-acre Grange Farm, Shropshire, the 220-cow herd is averaging 12,500kg and the Gould family can look back with justifiable pride, not only on its breeding achievements, but on the world-wide demand it has generated for the Woodmarsh prefix.
On the home-front no regular buyer of cattle at the Western Holstein Club’s sales held at Beeston Castle market will miss the chance to take a long, hard look at the cattle in the Woodmarsh stalls.
