Four farming generations ago, Lythe farmer, Eric Dobson, milked his own cows and sold the milk door-to-door in Sandsend.
There were no supermarket contracts or price wars back then.
On the back of what has been a turbulent few years for the farming industry, the same Dobson family farming business, some 80 years later, has gone full circle and installed a milk vending machine where they sell the milk from 100 of their closed herd of pedigree Holsteins.
The vending machine, selling fresh milk as well as flavoured milkshakes, is situated in the yard at Phipps Farm on the High Street at Lythe, making the ‘farm to fork’ miles actually just a few metres.
Phipps Farm has been run by Martin Dobson and wife Vanessa since 2001, when after foot and mouth took out their herd, Alan (Martin’s father) retired and the couple started again with new livestock.
Martin, the fourth-generation to take on the family farm, always had a vision to go back to the days of selling their own produce from the farm.
However, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2021 when he was 55, and Vanessa took the helm, wanting to make sure Martin’s plan would come to fruition.
She said: “We thought we would really have to advertise it but it has gone from word of mouth.
“I am getting a lot of comments from people saying it is not like supermarket milk, but it isn’t because it hasn’t been messed about with. It has really taken off and has been better than I thought it would be.”
As well as regular milk, there are four core milkshake flavours – strawberry, chocolate, banana and white chocolate and raspberry. Each week two or three rotating flavours are added, which could be salted caramel, lemon cheesecake or black cherry or biscoff, for example.
Lythe residents have been very supportive of the venture, says Vanessa, as well as passing trade and people coming from farther afield.
Part of the reason for how well the milk vending machine has done so far, she puts down to people having more interest in where food comes from and more awareness of how tough the farming business can be.
Vanessa said: “I find that people want to talk, they want to know where food comes from, what the cows are eating and I am quite open about that.
“The cows are fed on grass, grain and silage, they are happy and outside in the fields from February to November and we very rarely medicate them.
“I know exactly what is in the milk and that is how I want it. It can be a week before milk gets from a farm to supermarket shops. We just carry it across the yard.”
When Martin and Vanessa took over the farm, they started by buying 42 pedigree Holstein cows from RG & HE Thompson at Sneaton .
A few years later they added a number of high quality cows from The Netherlands, including the introduction of red and white Holstein cows.
They now operate a closed herd (where all livestock are born and raised on site) and operate a breeding programme with cows which statistically produce higher protein and higher butterfat milk, making for a creamier tasting product.
As the new venture progresses, Vanessa – helped on the farm full-time by her son Lewis and daughter Beth with the marketing of the product – is looking to introduce more dairy items to sell to the public.
The vending machine venture had been in the pipeline for a couple of years before being launched in July this year, but with low milk prices, it took time to raise the investment and put everything in place.
It is part of the reason for deciding to sell milk directly.
Vanessa explained: “The government support is not there in the industry and all farmers really want is to be paid properly for what they produce. The milk price is so up and down – it costs the same for us to produce – but you don’t know what the price will be and you can’t spend money on the farm or plan.
“This way I get paid a proper price for my milk and it is lovely when people say they like it and keep coming back for more – I get joy from that. A lot of people in the village are using it, have been really supportive and it has been really lovely.”
Following Martin’s diagnoses, Vanessa had a choice to make if she wanted to carry on the Dobson name in local farming.
Eric Dobson started off by milking eight cows at Low buildings. Every day he took the milk to Sandsend in churns on a horse and cart, or horse and sledge in winter, and sold it door-to-door.
When he moved to Middle Farm he had space for 16 cows, and in the early 1950s installed a milking machine. With his sons Keith and Alan helping him he increased the herd size to around thirty cows.
They became beef and sheep farmers in the 1970s until Alan and his son, Martin, went back to milking cows.
Vanessa said: “It has been a difficult few years. It took three years to get Martin diagnosed and he was about 55 when he started with it. I had my own job, and I enjoyed it, but I had a choice to make if we were to keep the farm on.
“I had only fed a few cows so I had to learn everything from scratch. I had six months where he taught me how to milk. I had been scared of the size of the cows but I have found I have a bond with them and that is how I work with them. They trust me and I trust them.
“It is hard work for a woman but I have had so much support from other farmers who couldn’t believe what I have taken on but said ‘ring if you need anything’. They have given me a pat on the back and said ‘well done’.”
