Member Article

A DAIRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

With the frantic Christmas getaway upon us, what does Christmas look like for our region’s farmers?

With 20 million hitting the roads to see families in the run-up to Christmas, the 21st December, or ‘Frantic Friday’, is set to be the busiest day on our roads, with 2.8 million trips predicted as we pay visits to loved ones.

However, not everyone can relax over the festive period. Needing to work every day of the year, Yorkshire’s farmers will be prepping their farms this week, making sure they can spend as much time with their family as possible.

From milk for Santa, cream for cakes, to the all-important Christmas cheese board, it certainly doesn’t quiet down for our farmers in December. When we’re tucking into our turkey, their cows will still need milking, and if nature calls, some might even need to calve!

Behind prison workers and clergy, farmers place top three when it comes to industries pulling shifts on the day itself. In Yorkshire alone, 3.1 per cent of people, which farmers make up a large majority, will be working on Christmas Day.

The Leeds-based farmer owned cooperative, Arla, estimates it will sell over 7,000 tonnes of Cheddar in the UK this December. In a recent survey, it found that a staggering 76 per cent of us think Christmas just wouldn’t be the same without the good stuff and 68 per cent prefer British cheese to our French counterparts!

John Banks is one of many Yorkshire farmers who works all year round to ensure our milk and cheeses really are the crème de la crème.

Based in York, John is one of 2,400 UK farmers that are part of the Arla co-operative’s and his is larger than average, with 500 cows. John and his team produce top-quality milk which goes into Arla’s products sold across the UK.

The lead up to Christmas doesn’t really change for John. He said: “There’s still work to be done, but with a big team, the rota means everyone can have time off to enjoy parts of Christmas.

John tries to see the positive side when it comes to working on Christmas day. He fits the farm work in between spending time with family and believes it is good exercise after eating so much over Christmas.

Volumes of production for speciality cheeses triples over November and December and when it comes to our tipples, it takes three months for milk to end up in our creamy liqueurs.

Over in Skipton, cheese lover and Arla Farmer, Paul Bolland has just two other people working on his farm, his wife and his son, next generation farmer, James.

Paul uses high tech trackers on the necks of his cows to monitor their health, meaning he can take a little time off on the 25th, putting his feet up and letting the tech do some of the hard work!

He said: “In the run up to Christmas, we try to get everything done a little bit earlier so we have more family time, but we’ll still need to milk the cows at four in the morning and four in the afternoon.”

As with most farmers, Paul and his family are gearing up for a bit of graft on Christmas day. After milking his cows, family time starts in the afternoon at the local pub, treating himself to a well-deserved Christmas dinner feast.

Keighley based Arla farmer Jonathan Sharp uses technology such as collars for monitoring heat on the cows and a high-tech Moocall sensor on the cow’s tail which sends the farmer a text when it goes into calve.

On Christmas day, Jonathan is still working for a minimum of seven hours because just like every other working day, all the cows will need to be milked, fed and mucked out.

After working hard in the run up to, and on Christmas day, Jonathan’s Christmas routine is unorthodox, but he always makes time for a little fun.

He said: “We do things such as taking the staff out to the races in the run up to the big day and we celebrate two Christmas days, one with my family and then one with my wife’s family”.

Arla’s survey found we’re geared up to spend £2 billion on cheese over the festive season, equating to £37 each!

If you like Wensleydale with your Christmas cake, in true Yorkshire spirit, your love of cheese is certainly in good hands thanks to the region’s farmers, who’ll be working hard to bring us our festive fare to our plates.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Arla .