One of the few remaining dairy farmers in the Waveney Valley are selling their herd after finding it impossible to recruit new staff.

Father and son John and Matthew Cawston, aged 46 and 76 respectively, of Hill House Farm, Woodton, near Bungay, will sell just under 100 of their milking cows next Thursday (July 4).

Matthew said it was "devastating" but added that they would keep a few dairy and other non-milking cattle on.

They would also continue showing their Poringland herd at the Suffolk and Royal Norfolk Shows which they have supported for many years and at which they have won a clutch of awards.

Matthew Cawston at the Suffolk Show in 2014 (Image: Lucy Taylor)

The dairy cattle - made up mainly of Holsteins with some Jerseys - will go under the hammer at Gisburn auction mart near Clitheroe in Lancashire on Thursday in a sale organised by Norton and Brooksbank.

"We are selling the milking proportion of our herd - we are keeping the young stock and the heifers," said Matthew.

They would keep a handful of the milking cows on - but it will be the end of an era for the farm, which also includes around 500 acres of arable land. 

"There are a few reasons. We are struggling to find a replacement for our herdsman," he explained.

As his father is getting older they were looking to recruit, he said. "My dad is now in his mid-70s and he can't go on forever so we probably need relief and we are looking for two people and can't even find one."

John Cawston at the Suffolk Show in 2022 (Image: Sarah Lucy Brown)

Matthew - who is busy showing with his father at the Royal Norfolk Show this week - said people had been offering their commiserations.

"It's been a hard few days," he admitted. "Obviously it's devastating really to be honest with you. I'm mid 40s and it's all I have ever known and it's all he's ever known. It's a very difficult decision but you speak to anyone out there looking for staff - it's not just this industry but across any industry."

Matthew has two young daughters and two young nieces and they were all keen to continue the family tradition of keeping - and showing - livestock.

John and Matthew Cawston with other members of the family at the Royal Norfolk Show this year (Image: Cawston family)

"We'll keep probably over 200 head of cattle on the farm," he said. They would breed the Holsteins for semen and sell on the heifers in milk and they would continue with some beef cattle, he explained.

The herd started out at Poringland but Matthew's grandfather moved to Woodton in the 1960s taking the name with him.

Essex dairy farmer John Smith - who runs a dairy herd at St Osyth, near Clacton, and scooped the dairy interbreed championship at this year's Suffolk Show - said the sector was facing a tough time with labour shortages and low milk prices.

"It's a real shame that we lose another dairy farm in East Anglia due to the lack of support from the government who take us for granted," he said.