A Whitchurch farm has hailed the launch of a raw milk vending machine a great success.

Around 200 people attended the event which saw the self service machine go into action at Peak House Farm, in Cole Henley, run by Mark and Jenny Stevens, along with their two sons Tom and William.

“It was an amazing day – we were overwhelmed,” said Jenny.

“We’ve had a lot of local support and I think all of our neighbours in Cole Henley came, with a lot of people from Whitchurch and Overton.”

Visitors were able to fill their own bottles of milk or use cartons provided by the farm for £1 a litre.

They also watched cows being milked, enjoyed cream teas, indulged in the farm’s homemade clotted cream fudge and learned about unpasteurised milk, otherwise known as raw milk and its reputed health benefits.

The farm is licensed by the Foods Standards Agency to sell raw milk.

It was the continuous fall in the wholesale price that prompted Mark and Jenny Stevens to install the machine on the 140 acre farm, where they have a herd of 100 cows, including Holsteins, British Freisians crossed with Brown Swiss, and Swedish Red cows.

It costs the family about 28 pence to produce a litre of milk, but they only receive 22.8 pence a litre from their milk wholesaler.

Jenny said: “Some people said they used to drink raw milk years ago and remember what proper milk tastes like.”

She said raw milk produced on the farm is in its most natural state as nature intended, with nothing added and nothing taken away.

“It contains only four per cent fat and it’s unrecognisable to that on supermarket shelves,” said Jenny.

“I think there is a lot of sympathy for dairy farmers. We have a quality product that supermarkets are selling as a loss leader.

“Although some people think that farmers are always whinging, all we want is a fair price.

"So we’re getting on and taking it into our own hands.”