A FAMILY-run dairy farm in Whitchurch is selling raw milk directly to the public in the wake of supermarket price squeezing.

The initiative, which started last Sunday, comes as a result of the fall in the wholesale price for the milk Mark and Jenny Stevens sell to farm co-operative Arla.

The couple run Peak House Farm, at Cole Henley, home to a herd of 100, mainly Holsteins, British Friesians, crossed with Brown Swiss and Swedish Red cows.

They are now selling the milk from a self-service vending machine on the 140-acre farm after gaining a licence from the Food Standards Agency to sell unpasteurised milk – otherwise known as raw milk.

Mr Stevens said: “We embarked on the idea a year ago before the milk price was anything like nearly as low as it is now.

“At the moment we receive about 22.8 pence per litre, but it costs us around 28 pence to produce a litre of milk.

“So we’re doing this to primarily add some value to the milk we produce.

“It’s a case of doing what you can – in the long term that milk price is not sustainable for the dairy industry.”

The falling price of milk has led to mass protests by dairy farmers, with some taking cows into supermarkets to make their point.

Although not overly critical of Arla, which Mr Stevens describes as better than most dairy wholesalers, he said it is trading in a global market where there is an oversupply of milk, made worse by the Russian trade embargo on European milk.

But he is critical of supermarkets using milk as loss leaders.

Mr Stevens said: “There is this intense competition between the retailers – they could agree amongst themselves that they won’t drop below a certain level, but it seems like it’s a race to the bottom price.

“Dairy farming is such a longterm business, whereas in retailing they are more interested in the here and now.”

Mr Stevens said the initial outlay for the vending service, including the vending machine imported from Italy and building work to house the equipment, has cost the business around £15,000.