Objective One helps farmer build new cheese factory

Cornish dairy farmer David Lambrick is diversifying into speciality cheese production thanks to a £52,700 grant from the Objective One programme.

Toppenrose Dairy, at Trenance Farm, St Keverne will produce fresh and mould-ripened cheeses in a purpose-built small factory on the farm.

The £263,000 project, which is also being funded by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, involves the demolition of a concrete-built barn and replacing it with a small creamery equipped for the production, storage and packaging of cheeses.

Farmer David Lambrick said: "We’re looking at producing three new cheeses for sale within Cornwall and to speciality cheese retailers throughout the UK. It’ll be about six months until we have built the factory, installed the equipment and developed our cheese-making skills sufficiently to start marketing our new products.

“We’re a small farm with limited acreage and with milk prices being so volatile, the returns have been disappointing. We knew the only way ahead was to diversify and with the help of Objective One and DEFRA, we’ve been able to do that.”

The project is the latest in a series of dairy projects financed through the Objective One programme, all of which seek to add value to milk at a time when raw milk prices continue to decline.

Roger Metcalf, dairy sector co-ordinator in the Objective One Agricultural Development Team, said: “Speciality cheeses offer perhaps the best development potential for the dairy sector in Cornwall, and on-farm processing is one way of achieving a better return for milk.”

As well as making the Lambrick farm more viable, enabling David Lambrick’s son Ben to become full time, the new creamery will require in the longer term milk bought from other local farms and provide employment opportunities. The cheeses will be sold through at least two other local farm diversification businesses as well as through the main Cornish wholesalers and Farmers Markets.

“Future developments are likely to require more specialist raw materials, such as organic cows milk and herbs all to be sourced locally, so it will be good news for the local economy.”