Goats' milk packed fresh every day for distribution to supermarkets throughout the country

 As farmers, in 550 acres of beautiful countryside in the Vale of York, we have a responsibility to look after the environment and we adopt a farming philosophy that seeks to achieve those aims.

Badgers, stoat, foxes and deer are all prevalent in the local fields and woods. We are close to the protected Derwent Ings, that feeds thousands of migrating birds when in flood during the winter months.

 

In recent years, we participated in the RSPB Volunteer and Farmer Alliance Project and commissioned an audit of the summer birds present on the land surrounding our farm at Seaton Ross. We were delighted to discover that there were 63 different species recorded over the few days of the survey. It was particularly encouraging to note that about 20% of them were what the RSPB term as red listed, where there is great concern over their declining numbers.

 

The list included corn bunting, marsh tit, yellowhammer and linnet. Our favourites are the barn owls that patrol regularly near the farm and can often be seen flying low over the hedgerows and field margins searching for food. For more details on this survey, follow the Bird Survey link and open up the document.

  

 

Our main packaging types are paperboard cartons for milk and plastics for yogurt pots. We have always used cardboard cartons to package our milk. The cartons arrive from the printers as flat board, so we can receive many thousands of units on one delivery and store them in a relatively small area.

 

Transporting and storing empty bottles of glass or plastic takes a lot of space and we would need daily deliveries of packaging to satisfy our needs. Larger dairies avoid this problem by manufacturing their own plastic bottles on site.

 

The beverage carton packaging industry works with local authorities and community recycling networks to establish collection schemes and bring banks for cartons. The situation varies by area and your local authority will know what arrangements are in place in your locality. A similar situation exists with plastics. Our yogurt and cream packaging is made of either lightweight polystyrene (PS6) or polypropylene (PP5) pots that have a detachable cardboard sleeve. This helps us to reduce the weight of our packaging and means that the board and the plastic can be recycled (where facilities exist).