Turning a dairy dream into a thriving specialist business

There was a time when dairy cows were somewhat frowned upon in Lincolnshire. That is the opinion of Simon Jones, whose father brought Holsteins in a region traditionally void of such herds.

The area might not renowned for dairy cows, but there are advantages to milking cows on the edge of the Wolds.

Brothers Simon and Tim Jones are making the most of these benefits and, along with their passion for cheese-making, it has enabled them to evolve the family farm into a specialist food-producing business.

Their Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese, produced solely from home-produced unpasteurised milk to give it its own unique flavour, was launched in 1992.

Success soon followed and one of their biggest accolades arrived in 1996 when they were named winner of the supreme championship at the British Cheese Awards, beating 600 other British cheeses.

This, coupled with the emergence of farmers’ markets, proved to be a turning point and the business went from producing 40 tonnes of cheese a year in 2000 to the 150 tonnes a year it now sells.

“When we started there was no-one else in the area doing anything like this,” explains Simon. “We had a unique product, but there were no farmers’ markets and few farm shops in those days, so we were struggling for somewhere to sell it.”

‘Rationing’

“Then an egg wholesaler who was looking for other products approached us. Soon we were having to ration it to local, shops as there wasn’t enough to go round.”

The cheese is now sold in numerous farm shops and delicatessens; top restaurants, including those run by Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver; Waitrose; 100 branches of Sainsbury’s, 200 branches of Marks and Spencer and is exported to the USA.

Attending 50 farmers’ markets a month is a huge undertaking, which requires its own manager, Jeremy Cooper, a large number of part-time staff and seven vans. But although manpower is high, the outlet accounts for 16 per cent of volume and 23 per cent of turnover.

“We are fortunate we have large centres of population not too far away, although we do go down to London once a month to attend three markets on Saturday and four on Sunday.”

The pair take it in turns to do the London run and assign themselves to six weekends a year, which they appreciate is ‘not too much of a commitment.’

“Farmers’ markets are vital to the business. It enables us to charge retail, rather than a wholesale price, although we always maintain a fair price.

“But most importantly, it is a point of contact between us and our customers and we get tremendous feedback.

Local economy

“Statistics show 80 per cent of money spent locally stays local, which is very important for the whole rural economy.

“The more successful we are, the more people we can employ and the more we can support other local businesses. We feel it is important for us to put something back into the region.”

It was Simon and Tim’s great-grandfather, Fred Read, who took on the tenancy at Ulceby Grange, south of Louth, in 1917. He was followed by his son, Charles, and at that time the only cow in sight was a house cow.

It wasn’t until Charles’s daughter, Jennifer, married Richard Jones that dairy cows were introduced to the farm.

“My father wasn’t from this area and he wasn’t from a farming background. He brought with him new ideas and decided to go into dairy cows, even though they were somewhat frowned upon in Lincolnshire. But it is a good area to be in.

“There is easy access to arable by-products and plenty of straw. We are not far from a sugar beet factory and can grow excellent clover, which is good for yield.

“TB is a concern, but we are lucky there are no other cattle nearby. We would normally be on four-yearly testing, but because we use raw milk, we are on yearly testing, but have never had a reactor.”

Over the years, the original holding was purchased, plus more land and by 1995 the family were farming 688 hectares (1,700 acres) and milking 500 cows, spread across three farms.

After studying at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, and a spell traveling, Simon returned to the farm in 1988.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, although when the dairy manager left I did take on his job.

“However, we were a very food orientated family and my father had always wanted to start making cheese, but had never found the time, so I decided to have a go.

After a meeting with Dougal Campbell, a cheese-maker from West Wales, Simon spent some time with him learning to make the product and went on a two-week course at Reaseheath College.

In February 1992, Dougal came to the farm and helped Simon make the first batch of cheese. From then they started using 1,000 litres of milk, once a week, to make their new product.

“I wasn’t really interested in farming huge acreages and in 1995 we took the decision to sell some of the land and reduce cow numbers, which allowed my father to retire and us to consolidate the cheese business.”

Five years later, Tim, who studied economics at university and had been working in London, returned to the family business to deal with the administrative side and soon developed a passion for artisan cheese.

“Simon always wanted to be a farmer and I never did, but now it works well and we both bring different things to the business.”

Simon was interested in organic farming and his father less so, but after experimenting with 40ha (100 acres), the whole farm is now organic, although the cows and cheese are not.

“For me it was always about being self-sufficient and not reliant of bought-in fertiliser, so organic ticked all the boxes.

“The cows have access to TMR all the time and buying in organic concentrates was becoming more difficult and expensive, so we remain GM free, but not completely organic, although they eat organic grass.”

Flavours

As the cheese is made from unpastuerised, very fresh milk it requires very little starter culture and develops its own flavour, which varies with the seasons.

The milk is still warm when it is piped into the dairy Simon says means all the fresh flavour is captured.

“For me the best cheese is made on a sunny May day, when the cow’s been eating spring grass,” he says.

Lincolnshire Poacher is a strong hard cheese somewhere between a continental hard mountain cheese and traditional West Country Cheddar, but because of variation due to the cows’ diet, it is matured for different lengths of time to ensure every batch achieves its full potential. It is, therefore, marketed under different names.

Cheese is produced seven days a week and cheese-maker, Richard Tagg, and his assistant use 5,000 to 6,000 litres of milk each day to produce 500 to 600kg of cheese a day.

Production process

It is quite a physical process as the drained curds are cut and turned by hand until the correct level of acidity is reached. It is then milled before salt is added and it is put into moulds.

Four insulated cheese stores are required because of the long maturing time, which are kept at 12degC and 90 per cent humidity.

The cheeses are all turned periodically by hand and produce for the farmers’ markets and local retailers is cut and packed on site. Those destined for supermarkets go through a third party packer.

Several times a week, some of the whey cream is used to make a ripened cream butter, which is sold through markets along with 12,000 litres of raw milk, which is bottled every year.

“We need a license from the Food Standards Agency to sell raw milk, but there is a growing demand for it. We have regular customers who order in bulk in advance and then collect it at the farmers’ markets.

“We also have our own organic free-range hens and sell the eggs. We don’t want to have a huge range of products, but a few add some variety to the stalls.”

Virtually all the milk produced is used for cheese and there are no plans to increase cow numbers or expand cheese production.

“I think we are just about where we want to be,” says Simon when asked where the farm’s development is heading next.

“We won’t be going into more supermarkets - it’s nice to remain a little bit sought-after.

“The great thing about cheese-making is that you never stop learning, so we will just continue to work on improving our product and striving for perfection.”

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