Video: Ice cream diversification doubles value of litre of milk

A dairy farm has increased the value per litre of milk from the 30p it gets from its Glanbia contact to 50p, almost double, through a new ice cream diversification.

Matthew and Margo Evans keep 350 dairy cattle at their 200ha farm in St David’s Pembrokeshire and decided to move into ice cream production after family holidays in Cornwall – and eating great ice cream there – inspired them.

They take the milk to off-site facilities to produce the ice cream, and can produce £1,000 worth of ice cream from 100 litres in a day.

The most important aspect of the diversification, Matthew Evans says, is that they get to control the price of what they are producing, very different from having to accept the market rates via milk contracts.

See also: How one dairy farm set up a processing unit to sell direct

With rewards also come challenges, however, and the biggest for Matthew has been dealing with people and talking himself hoarse on his Lochmeyler Farm ice cream stand at shows.

While the main milk enterprise still provides the largest part of their income, they hope to increase the ice cream business and are in the process of building and kitting out their own ice cream production facilities.

Watch the video with Ffermio presenter Meinir Howells on the Evans’ farm.

Ffermio is the only television programme in Britain which specifically deals with agricultural issues, as well as providing all the news relevant to farmers and the wider audience.

It is a weekly magazine programme for S4C that discusses a wide range of topics from animal health to food production and conservation.

Join the presenters, Daloni Metcalfe, Alun Elidyr and Meinir Howells, for the latest agricultural stories.

Ffermio presenters (left to right) Alun Elidyr, Meinir Howells and Daloni-Metcalfe