4 days ago
The vending machine and robots helping farm in Harbury survive
A vending machine, offering fresh milk direct to customers, has helped a farm in Warwickshire diversify and survive, the owners say. George and Heather Clarke run a herd of more than 100 cows at Chesterton House Farm in Harbury near Leamington offer non-homogenised pasteurised milk from their Milk Shed - along with a selection of coffees and have also been deployed at the site, in an effort to cut down work for the farmers.
The diversification scheme was "just another revenue stream," said Mr Clarke. "Most of the milk goes to a milk buyer," he said, "but as much as we can is sold through the milk machine.""We have people come from Daventry and there's a group comes from Dudley" for their milk, added Mrs Clarke. "It's also helped bridge a gap in the village - it's not just a smelly farm - it does actually produce quite a high-value product," Mr Clarke added.
Two robots, named after their children Martha and Ralph, are also being used to work more efficiently. "As the cows eat they tend to nose the food away from the feed fence and they can't reach it," explained Mr Clarke. "So this robot comes out every hour, every 45 minutes and just pushes the food back in for them so they can reach it again. "It works really well, it saves my back having to push it all in with a fork".
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