Cheddar maker to reward milk suppliers who go greener
THE UK’s largest independent cheddar maker has unveiled plans to financially reward its Westcountry dairy farm suppliers for adopting sustainable practices, as part of a new ‘five pillar’ scheme.
Somerset-based Wyke Farms, whose products are consumed in 160 countries around the world, started working on the ‘Net Positive Farming’ project earlier this year and recently shared the results of a study undertaken with their local milk supply base which found that carbon emissions were at levels 55% lower than the global average.
The family-run company, which has been making cheddar in the Mendip Hills since 1861, said the ‘five pillar scheme’ is the second phase of the Net Positive Farming project, and has been created to bring about “real-life industry change”.
With immediate effect, farmers supplying milk to Wyke Farms are incentivised to introduce, or improve existing, sustainable practices in the following five areas (pillars):
Feed management;
Soil and land management; Manure management; Herd management; Energy management. Once the criteria has been met they can achieve an extra 0.2 pence per litre of milk for each; meaning an additional 1ppl if addressing all five.
To qualify for the 0.2ppl in each pillar, farmers will need to meet three out of five modules in the first four pillars, and two out of the four in ‘energy management’.
Managing director at Wyke Farms, Richard Clothier, said the purpose of the five pillar scheme is to “affect change and ultimately achieve net positive farming”, with the standards pitched at a level that “drives continuous improvement”. “Our industry is facing an existential threat and we have to change,” he commented. “We are on a journey together, together we will improve our knowledge base and strive to be better environmentalists.
“The financial incentive is an important part of the project, but equally important is the knowledge share and building knowledge of environmental best practice with suppliers. We are identifying best practise beacon farmers in each of the pillars who demonstrate what ‘good’ looks like, so this knowledge can be shared with the rest of the [milk supply] pool and the industry can move forward.”
Wyke Farms, which sources all its electricity and gas from both solar and biogas, generated from the farm and dairy waste, is the first dairy company to use this approach. The sustainability bonus is built into the headline price paid and the new five pillar scheme replaces the old Wyke Sustainability bonus of 0.2ppl for any supplier that adopted sustainability into their working practice.