Running a dairy farm on the Isle of Man
Starting a dairy farm on the Isle of Man was a goal Carl Huxham set himself over 10 years ago, and one the former accountant achieved by keeping things simple.
Back in 2006, just a year after graduating with a business degree, Carl purchased 85 acres of land to run a suckler herd on, alongside his day job as an accountant. In 2007, with the help of a £20,000 young farmers startup grant, Carl was able to build the first shed that now houses the parlour. That heralded the foundations of what is now Cronk Aalin Farm in Sulby on the Isle of Man.
“I later left accountancy in 2012 with the aim of milking cows and retailing the milk direct to doorsteps. I purchased a second-hand milking setup comprising a Fullwood 16-point parlour, with a 1,600-litre bulk tank and water heaters, all for £8,000. The cubicle sheds were completed that year and I installed the parlour over a 6-month period. During that installation I changed the system to an 8-point swingover, adding ACRs and milk metres. With the infrastructure in place, I purchased 24 heifers and we started milking, initially feeding the milk to calves.”
Delivering milk to customers
In 2014, together with his wife Sarah, Carl launched their Aalin Dairy business producing milk and delivering milk directly to customers.
“To start with, I milked the cows, washed the empty glass bottles, then pasteurised, bottled and delivered the milk. Over the last 10 years, we were able to increase the milk rounds to 9. We are now using electric vans to make the deliveries covering the top half of the Isle of Man,” said Carl. “Our production always runs at a surplus, which we make into yoghurt. I’m quite proud that we have won Great Taste Awards for our yoghurt and our cream.”
“Our farm really has been built from scratch over the past 18 years. Our own home was finished in 2015 and we built an indoor silage pit in 2022. In 2020, we were able to buy 21 acres from a neighbour to give us more capacity,” he said.
Dairy cow breed and milking
Cronk Aalin Farm is home to a modest sized herd of 40 cows, which started off dominated by the Holstein Friesian breed. Currently, Carl is focusing on adding the Monbeliarde and Ayrshire breeds into the mix to better suit land conditions.
“Being on a hill farm ranging from 480 ft to 900 ft above sea level, we need a strong cow with good feet, which is why I now favour the Montbeliarde,” said Carl. “Personally, I like red cows, so all the AI bulls we choose now must be red. The cows normally graze from March to November in one group and during the winter are housed in cubicles bedded with straw.”
The average yield of the herd is 6,000-7,000 litres per cow per year at an average 4.8% butterfat and 3.4% protein.
“We aim to rear 5 replacement heifers per year using AI. We are currently running a Limousin sweeper bull, but there is little demand for beef-cross calves locally. They are generally reared to around 3 or 4 months old and then sold to other mainland UK farmers,” he said.
Dairy farm labour
Carl and Sarah have have 2 full-time employees, one working on the farm and another working in the milk processing room. A team of 11 delivery drivers work on a rotation system delivering milk on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“I milk the cows and oversee the farm operations, while Sarah looks after all the paperwork and the customer side of the business,” said Carl. “All our milk is sold at 85p per pint, delivered directly to the customer base by our drivers. We sell the milk in pint glass bottles, which are washed and reused, increasing our sustainability. There are another 27 dairy farms on the Isle of Man and they all supply the islands central processor, with one also retailing some milk for selling direct to customers.”
Carl’s cows graze grass during the summer, with an additional 2 kg of 17% concentrate fed in the parlour. This ration changes in the winter to grass silage mixed with pea and barley wholecrop, and rolled oats, with a 20% cake fed at 4 kg per cow per day.
Even though Carl has invested in the farm since its humble beginnings, he continues to enhance it while keeping things simple. “We operate a simple system. I guess our biggest investment is having all our own machinery to harvest forage by ourselves. We are now operating a trailed Lely Storm forager plus two 8.5 tonne silage trailers.”
Carl said that the plans for the future of the dairy farm are to become more efficient and to reduce costs. “Being on an island, our input costs are all quite high as everything incurs a shipping cost.” And in trms of the health of the herd, Carl stated: “We may be free from TB and BVD on the island but exporting stock for sale is also expensive. Importing stock is currently banned due to UK bluetongue outbreak.”
