Morrisons, the UK’s fourth largest food retailer, is working with dairy farmers to set up a network of Focus Farm Events across Britain.  

The events will focus on relevant topics selected by the farmers and the initiative has been developed by Dairy Crest Direct Forum (DCD) representatives, who have worked with Morrisons and their milk purchaser, Dairy Crest. DCD believes that a network of Morrisons Focus Farms has the potential to help farmers meet the economic and environmental challenges of building sustainable businesses for the future.

The first Focus Farm Event has been held near Stourbridge in the West Midlands, where Richard Pearman milks 240 cows and supplies his milk through Dairy Crest.

Each Focus Farm Event will provide a base for activities that have the potential to improve efficiency and cut costs.  At the same time, the activities will be aimed at reducing the dairy sector’s carbon footprint in to order to meet UK Government targets. Neighbouring farmers have the opportunity to be part of the network, sharing ideas and best practice.

Through its Farming Programme, Morrisons will encourage the Focus Farm groups to suggest areas that would benefit from applied research.  An example already completed is a pilot project with DCD members to analyse and benchmark the Carbon Footprint of 100 dairy farms in England and Wales.  Also launched from this West Midlands Focus Farm event was a project led by vet and DairyCo national specialist Karen Lancaster.  This involves practical farm workshops to develop the use of Cow Signals, an increasingly popular tool to improve cow health and welfare.

Morrisons Head of Agriculture, David Evans, said: “We know that farmers learn best from other farmers and that’s why we believe the Focus Farm model works so well.  I’m delighted that our Dairy Crest farmers are so positive about developing a network of their own.  I’m confident these will become a hotbed of good ideas which, backed by the Morrisons Farming Programme, can really make a difference to the whole dairy industry sustainability - tackling both economic and environmental challenges.”

Commenting on the event, Richard Pearman, Chairman of the DCD Forum, said: “I was delighted to host this first Morrisons Focus Farm event at my family’s farm here in the West Midlands.  The feedback from fellow farmers was positive and DCD looks forward growing the relationship with Morrisons, one of our key retail customers.”