The dairy farmer harnessing horse power in £13-a-pint milk
A West farmer produces the world’s most expensive milk – from horses and costing £13 a pint.
Frank Shellard runs the only farm in Britain to commercially produce the alternative dairy product.
He says he got the idea as a remedy for his daughter’s eczema.
Frank’s family business, Combe Hay Mare’s Milk, has 14 mares producing
12 to 14 litres a day to make milk, hand cream and lotion.
Frank says mare’s milk is far sweeter, with a much lower fat content than cow’s milk, and says it’s drunk by more than 30 million people around the world.
Frank, 62, got the idea for the business after seeing a skin cream made from the product in Belgium cure his daughter Alison’s skin problems when she was 12.
Alison, 30, now works on the farm where she is in charge of milking.
Mare’s milk is not designed to replace regular cow’s milk but Frank says its health benefits mean everyone could incorporate it into their own diets. He said: “It’s a lot more expensive – it’s probably the most expensive milk in the world at £6.50 for 250 millilitres. But you would be drinking it as a health drink, more so than putting it on your cornflakes.”
He believes it even helped combat his high cholesterol after he suffered a stroke last year. Frank, from Bath, said: “Doctors tried to get my cholesterol down but they were struggling. “I started drinking a litre of milk a day, went back in and after about a month they couldn’t believe it had gone down.” Frank says Combe Hay is the only producer in the world registered with the Soil Association, which means all the milk they produce is 100 per cent organic and without chemicals. Another cream is also in its developmental stage, which is combined with organic honey.