Felixstowe dairy farmer sees bright future for milk sector

The 27-year-old is a Suffolk dairy farmer - having chosen to join his father, Richard, in the family business.

Richard has run the dairy enterprise since 1995 when he took over from his second cousin, Neil Adams.

Based at Gulpher Farm and Deben Lodge Farm at Felixstowe, the Adams family keep a herd of 120 Holstein cows which have to be milked twice a day to supply milk co-operative Arla.

A small amount also goes to the Little Ice Cream Company, which processes at its Nacton dairy and sells its produce in Felixstowe.

There are very few dairy farms remaining in largely arable Suffolk - and it's not for the faint-hearted. It's a hard life involving early starts and a seven-day-a-week commitment.

The financial returns can veer from reasonable to poor - and while milk prices are now up, not so long ago the industry was in crisis when prices plummeted.

Joe - a fifth generation farmer - started on the farm at a young age and only committed to rejoining it full-time about four years ago.

He graduated from Harper Adams University in 2013, worked for a food company in another part of company and travelled before coming back.

The Adams family has been in Felixstowe since 1918 when London fishmonger Percy Adams - joined by his two sons, Alf and Charlie - started a new life on the east coast.

They rented some land at Falkenham - and so the farm began. In 1921 he bought Laurel Farm in Marsh Lane. Now there are different strands of Percy's family involved in various aspects of farming around the coastal town.

The farm expanded to around 1200 acres. It's very low-lying and was severely affected by the great flood of 1953 after the river burst its banks. The land is very fertile but rainfall is low.

The Adams family operation carried on as one business until 2020 when it was split up. Richard's family now owns Deben Lodge Farms and about 450 acres from which it runs a dairy and beef operation.

Richard, his wife Theresa - a primary school teacher - and Joe are partners in the business. A separate arm - belonging to cousins - became Adams Family Farms.

It's not an easy industry, admits Joe. Richard and Theresa have three children. Joe's sister is a teacher and his brother works for Rolls Royce in Nottingham. 

Joe is the youngest child but says the family was always "equal opportunity".

"I think the way my grandad ran the business before it was all very equal. There were three brothers - my father being the middle. They all had an equal chance of taking over the farm.

"I was in the fortunate position that dad very much said: 'Go and explore something else to make sure it's something you want to do' - he would be happy whatever I did."

Richard and Joe are helped by two full-time stock workers who look after the cattle and milk the cows.

"A lot of people would say we are over-staffed on the farm but the way dad set it up everyone works a five-day week," he says. It means that they can all take holidays and days off. "That's quite important to maintaining staff."

For whoever is milking it's a 4am start. That finishes at 7am after the shed is washed down. At 7.30am, the one allocated to feed the animals come in. The next milking session is at 3pm and finishes at 6pm.

"It's a long day," admits Joe. 

Cross-bred Aberdeen Angus/British Blue-sired calves are sent to the home farm at Deben Lodge to be finished and around 80 a year are sold for their beef. Others are raised as dairy replacements for the herd.

"A lot of people sell them on to specific beef rearers - that's an issue with a business with different facets," he says.

Other sources of income for the farm include a DIY livery at Deben Lodge Farm. There's also 50kW-producing solar panel array on the roof and 20kW of wind to power the farm's operations with any excess going on the grid.

The next chapter may be installing a robotic milking system, using three laser-guided machines in a cow shed. These would cost £100k-plus each but would mean the cows would be milked as and when they are ready rather than at fixed times in the day.

Price volatility remains an issue. In 2015, it dipped as low as 15p/16p a litre. Now it's around 45p/litre - but that's against a backdrop of a 15% increase in the cost of production from 2020 to now as feed and fertiliser prices rocketed.

However, Joe believes that dairy farming may be coming back in fashion. Farmers are keener now on mixed operations - although East Anglia remains largely arable.

Joe estimates there are probably just half a dozen dairy farms left in Suffolk. He is in touch with a network of about 13 of them across Norfolk and Suffolk.

They try and stick together, he says, and share ideas, with everyone critical and honest about each other's businesses.

"As a business we are stuck at a cross-roads really and we have got to pick a direction," says Joe. "Long term the demand for dairy is always there."