0:00:04 > 0:00:07Preserved in the flickering images
0:00:07 > 0:00:09of the films shot by some of Britain's farmers
0:00:09 > 0:00:12is a unique record of the influences
0:00:12 > 0:00:15that drove a 20th-century revolution on the land,
0:00:15 > 0:00:19a revolution that left no area of farming unchanged.
0:00:20 > 0:00:26By 1978, Britain was self-sufficient in temperate foodstuffs.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31We hadn't been self-sufficient since the 1760s.
0:00:31 > 0:00:33That is an extraordinary achievement.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Why did farming go from this...
0:00:39 > 0:00:41..to this?
0:00:41 > 0:00:44How did we go from milk delivered by the milkman
0:00:44 > 0:00:48to an industry dominated by supermarkets?
0:00:48 > 0:00:53And why today are there so few family farms left?
0:00:55 > 0:00:58When my grandfather came here 100 years ago,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00there were probably 26 dairies
0:01:00 > 0:01:02supplying milk into the Swindon market.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05And now we're the last one.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Told through the home movies and voices of the farmers
0:01:09 > 0:01:12who both led the changes and who were at the sharp end of them,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16the programmes in this series tell the story of the revolution
0:01:16 > 0:01:20in the four pillars of Britain's food production -
0:01:20 > 0:01:23wheat, horticulture, meat and milk.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42Milk is a huge industry.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47Britain's farmers produce around 13 billion litres of milk every year.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55Ever since we began to recognise that milk was good for our health,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59a daily pinta has been part of our diet and our culture.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03And milk is hugely important for Britain's farmers.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08Milk takes a larger share of farm profits than any other product.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12But the way it's produced and sold,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15and even the product itself, has changed dramatically.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20In the 1920s, there were 150,000 farmers producing milk.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Most of it was sold door to door.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Today, nearly all of the milk we drink
0:02:27 > 0:02:29is produced from specialist cows.
0:02:29 > 0:02:31It's treated in large-scale processing plants,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35and 90% of it is sold by supermarkets.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40And the number of dairy farmers has shrunk to 15,000.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45- Come on, you old devil!
0:02:45 > 0:02:47Come on!
0:02:47 > 0:02:51Will Hosford is a dairy farmer in North Dorset.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54It's a semi-tame cow, unfortunately.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56So it's a bit of a friend.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Will grew up on the farm with his two brothers.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03This is him as a toddler - he's on the left.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05And here he is at four years old,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08herding cows in the same red pullover.
0:03:09 > 0:03:14Growing up on this farm I think was good fun, great fun really.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19At quite a young age, we were always out doing something on the farm.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Excuse me! Come on!
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Nick Gosling farms a herd of Guernsey dairy cows
0:03:28 > 0:03:30in North Wiltshire.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Like Will, Nick grew up on the farm.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36This is him as a five-year-old.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40To go out with Dad was a thrill.
0:03:40 > 0:03:43I used to ride around with him everywhere.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45I was just his apprentice, really.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52This is his wife, Christine. They married in 1981.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54As soon as we were married
0:03:54 > 0:03:57I was taught to milk, and looked after the calves.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00I fell in love with this farm.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Will Hosford and Nick Gosling's home movies and family histories
0:04:05 > 0:04:08reveal the scale of the milk revolution,
0:04:08 > 0:04:13and why, when most dairy farmers have given up, they are carrying on.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Steady up, now.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Whoa-whoa!
0:04:26 > 0:04:28How you doing?
0:04:28 > 0:04:30How are you? How is that foot, eh?
0:04:30 > 0:04:33How's that foot? I know!
0:04:34 > 0:04:40'Well, we have about 90 in the herd, but, of course, it goes up and down.
0:04:40 > 0:04:41'We've got Guernseys.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45'We've always had them because we love the colour of the milk.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47'And it's such a quality milk
0:04:47 > 0:04:51'it goes on to make the fantastic butter and cream.'
0:04:51 > 0:04:56The sugars are the highest in the grass now for about the next hour.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58And then, as soon as the sun starts to go down,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02the sugars disappear and there's not so much goodness in the grass.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04So we let them out for a quick bite now,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08then before it gets too cold tonight, cos they're talking about a frost,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10we'll have them back in.
0:05:10 > 0:05:11They'll be back on their straw.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16'I'm in charge of the arable side of the farm
0:05:16 > 0:05:19'and the producing of the food for the cows.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21'And I'm working round the herd.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24'The central core of the herd, the actual milking,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26'is performed by Chris, my wife.'
0:05:29 > 0:05:30Come on, it's all right.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Good girl. Up you get, up you get!
0:05:33 > 0:05:34Come on, come on! Up, up, up!
0:05:36 > 0:05:41I've been doing this since I married Nick, which is 25 years ago.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45I start at five o'clock in the morning,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49and then again at half past three in the afternoon.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52And it's a very physical, very physical job.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09These scenes of life at Berkeley Farm
0:06:09 > 0:06:11were filmed by Nick Gosling's mother.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18She bought her first camera just after the war,
0:06:20 > 0:06:23and then carried on filming for almost 40 years.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29Once she got her cinefilm, she got the bug.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33And we could do nothing without a cinefilm being stuck in our face.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Mum, who never went near the farm,
0:06:40 > 0:06:43except to get us picnics and bring stuff out to the combine.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46But she always liked to be on film on the farm.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49HE LAUGHS
0:06:53 > 0:06:55So that was our very first combine,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58with Dad and Uncle Toby driving.
0:06:58 > 0:06:59But it was so exciting.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01When the combine got going,
0:07:01 > 0:07:03everyone used to rush out to watch the combine.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13The Gosling story begins at the start of the last century.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Grandfather moved to Artis Farm,
0:07:18 > 0:07:19which is the next one down,
0:07:19 > 0:07:21which was a rented farm.
0:07:21 > 0:07:22He came there in 1908.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32And it was just a small 60-, 70-acre farm with a few cows.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35And he gradually built up the herd,
0:07:35 > 0:07:38and then decided in about 1919
0:07:38 > 0:07:41he'd start delivering milk, locally to the village.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48And Nick's grandfather wasn't alone.
0:07:49 > 0:07:50A sensible farmer
0:07:50 > 0:07:52would give up growing wheat,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55particularly mixed farming on bad wheatlands,
0:07:55 > 0:07:56and move into dairying.
0:07:56 > 0:07:58The reason is quite simple,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03there is a growing, and continually growing, demand for dairy product.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Fresh milk, butter, cheese,
0:08:05 > 0:08:08but also industry and commercial use of dairying.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Most of these farmers sold their milk to a milk processor.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19By the late 1920s,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22these processors were able to use their economic power
0:08:22 > 0:08:25to drive down the price of milk they paid to farmers,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and many farmers struggled to survive.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31But in 1934 the Government stepped in.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33It created an organisation
0:08:33 > 0:08:36that bought all the milk produced by farmers
0:08:36 > 0:08:40and then sold it on their behalf to the processors.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43It was called the Milk Marketing Board,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46and it gave economic power to the dairy farmer.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50As a result of the guaranteed price,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55I don't think there's much doubt that more people went into dairying.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08One of the many people
0:09:08 > 0:09:09excited by the new opportunities
0:09:09 > 0:09:12that were opening up in agriculture in the 1930s
0:09:12 > 0:09:14was David Hosford.
0:09:14 > 0:09:19When we were little boys, my father was very keen on the countryside.
0:09:19 > 0:09:20And when it came to leave school
0:09:20 > 0:09:23what was I going to do? Well, I was going farming.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26I think I'm going to need a hand to push this over.
0:09:26 > 0:09:30It's his son, Will, who now runs the family farm.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34No use trying to do the filming and the work at the same time,
0:09:34 > 0:09:36because you'll lose the camera in the straw.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40But he does record what's going on on the farm.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42He likes to keep a record,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and it's quite interesting to look at the pictures
0:09:46 > 0:09:48from years gone by.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55I was brought up in London, in Highgate, where my father was a GP.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58But the countryside was always very important.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01He was keen on the countryside, he was a bit of a naturalist.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05And when we purchased this cottage, in Whipsnade,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08country life became part of our life.
0:10:16 > 0:10:17That's David in 1938,
0:10:17 > 0:10:21driving the cart with his younger brother and sister.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25We got to know this farm,
0:10:25 > 0:10:27Church Farm, Whipsnade,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30and the family, Bates, the farmers, very well.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33And, extraordinarily enough, they used to welcome us.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37We were visitors that they liked to see. We weren't muddling urbanites.
0:10:39 > 0:10:40I can remember I said to my father,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43"Go on! Ask him if there's something we can do!"
0:10:43 > 0:10:46And I was about nine or ten then.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50I would be given something or another to do, and I suppose,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53because I showed some keenness,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56gradually we were allowed to lead the horses,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00and I suppose we really, the family, got really keen on farming.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10And this is the three of them on the farm, wearing air raid helmets,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13two years after the outbreak of World War Two.
0:11:16 > 0:11:17Through the war, we spent...
0:11:17 > 0:11:21We weren't evacuated to the cottage in the war, we lived in London,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24but we spent quite a lot of time at the cottage,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26it was only within an hour's run from home.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29And we really got dug in at that farm.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37The war had a profound impact on most areas of agricultural output,
0:11:37 > 0:11:38but not milk production.
0:11:40 > 0:11:41The Second World War
0:11:41 > 0:11:47ought to have damaged the fortunes of dairy farmers in some ways.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51The concentration on the production of the staple, ie wheat,
0:11:51 > 0:11:56did certainly take a good deal of pasture out of production.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00And certainly the number of cattle fell during the war.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03They didn't fall as much as they might have done,
0:12:03 > 0:12:07for the simple reason that in the 1930s, particularly,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11people had become aware of the science of diet.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14And, in that, milk acquired a particular place
0:12:14 > 0:12:17as essential for kids in particular.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21And it was during the war that you get the introduction of school milk.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25Now, the purpose of school milk is to ensure
0:12:25 > 0:12:28that children get a certain amount of calcium in their diets.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33So that actually protects dairying, to an extent, during the war.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47War ended in 1945.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52But Britain continued to face food shortages and rationing,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54and the balance-of-payments crisis
0:12:54 > 0:12:57meant the country didn't have the money to import food.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04So, to encourage domestic production,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07the government took a fundamental decision.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12It decided to continue to pay financial subsidies to farmers.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15The approach was enshrined in the 1947 Agriculture Act.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20The Agriculture Act of 1947
0:13:20 > 0:13:25is without doubt the most important piece of agricultural legislation
0:13:25 > 0:13:28passed in the 20th century.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30Absolutely no doubt at all.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34At some very basic level, it saved British farming.
0:13:35 > 0:13:42Under the Act, dairy farmers were to be given a guaranteed price for all the milk they could produce.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46It amounted to an open invitation to increase output
0:13:46 > 0:13:50and it led to a revolution in every aspect of dairy production.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54It was already happening
0:13:54 > 0:13:57when David Hosford moved onto his farm in Dorset in 1952.
0:13:57 > 0:14:02- ..what, since the 50s? - Yeah, well, the first film I remember
0:14:02 > 0:14:06is a calf in front of my father's house, Dad's house.
0:14:06 > 0:14:08And that must have been within about six months
0:14:08 > 0:14:11of the taking over of the farm in 1952.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13I'm not sure I can remember that!
0:14:13 > 0:14:16No, you were just a twinkle in my eye in those days.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18HE LAUGHS
0:14:18 > 0:14:19Yes!
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Aged 55, my father said, "I'm going to retire,
0:14:27 > 0:14:29"and we will look for a farm."
0:14:29 > 0:14:31Which was very exciting.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35We bought the farm. And we moved in.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38And that was in September 1952.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And we've been here ever since.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51The Hosfords had bought a classic mixed farm.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53They had a little of everything.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55We took over lock, stock and barrel,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58which means we took all the machinery and all the livestock,
0:14:58 > 0:15:03and the livestock consisted of four nurse cows, we had two sows,
0:15:03 > 0:15:05and about 200 hens.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09Fairly soon, we pushed along into dairying.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Although probably for 10 years we grew SOME grain.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18The cows became more important,
0:15:18 > 0:15:23and you couldn't have both, there wasn't room for both. We hadn't got the acreage.
0:15:23 > 0:15:25We didn't set the trend.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27The trend was to specialise.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33As the system of price guarantees was introduced
0:15:33 > 0:15:34following the '47 Act,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38David realised that if they were going to maximise their output and profits,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41they would need to become specialist producers.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47In Wiltshire,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50the Goslings' mixed farm was moving in the same direction.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56Chris went to work when we first got married for a neighbouring farmer
0:15:56 > 0:15:57to help him do his lambing,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01and came back with lambs that grew into sheep, and then had lambs.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03And they were forever getting out.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08And those animals were more of a nuisance than 100 cows.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10They drove me mad.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17You really had to specialise more.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20And there wasn't the profit in all those enterprises
0:16:20 > 0:16:22unless you were very efficient.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24So, to specialise,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27you had to then put all your energies into one type of farming.
0:16:27 > 0:16:31Chickens on the scale we had them weren't cost-effective.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33And pigs, the same.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42Because the economies of scale were driving the system,
0:16:42 > 0:16:44it was becoming more and more important
0:16:44 > 0:16:47for small farms to specialise in one activity
0:16:47 > 0:16:49rather than a variety of activities.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52A few hens, a few pigs, a few cows didn't make commercial sense.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55But it was also part of the guarantees
0:16:55 > 0:16:57that government was giving.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Historically, one of the reasons for mixed farming
0:17:02 > 0:17:05is because you've got various eggs in various baskets.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07But if everything was guaranteed
0:17:07 > 0:17:10you didn't need that same diversification of risk
0:17:10 > 0:17:13to the same extent as you did before.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16But the revolution in dairy farming went well beyond specialisation.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18Farmers were beginning to realise
0:17:18 > 0:17:22that, because there was a guaranteed market for all they could produce,
0:17:22 > 0:17:27they had a huge financial incentive to increase their output.
0:17:28 > 0:17:32In agriculture, you can only increase production in two ways.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34Extensively or intensively.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Extensively means
0:17:37 > 0:17:40bringing more "land", in inverted commas, into cultivation.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Well, in dairying, this means simply having more cows.
0:17:44 > 0:17:49The problem is, the land which you can keep cows on is not infinite.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52So, therefore, the most sensible way to increase production,
0:17:52 > 0:17:57and the way which is dominant in the post-war era in Britain,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00is by intensively farming what you've got.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03In other words, in the case of cows,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06increasing the yield per animal of milk.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: An MMB Regional Livestock Royal Show judge.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21Dairy farmers set about intensifying production in broadly three ways.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24They embraced genetics to develop new breeds of cow,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26science to alter its diet,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30and technology to make milking more efficient.
0:18:30 > 0:18:31..by infrared analysis.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35This is the Herringbone milking parlour
0:18:35 > 0:18:37at Will Hosford's Dorset dairy farm.
0:18:38 > 0:18:44A herdsman and an assistant milk the herd of 300 cows, twice a day,
0:18:44 > 0:18:45every day of the year.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58During the 1930s, as David Hosford remembers, it was very different.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01To start off with you were doing it by hand,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04and then you had a portable milking machine
0:19:04 > 0:19:05which you took from cow to cow.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09Just imagine 150 cows there, and 150 down here,
0:19:09 > 0:19:11you'd walk a very long way!
0:19:14 > 0:19:16In 1952, we bought a bale.
0:19:16 > 0:19:22A bale is a mobile contraption which you drag across the fields.
0:19:22 > 0:19:27We were pretty green, I hadn't had much experience of...
0:19:27 > 0:19:30I knew about horses, which perhaps didn't serve us very well,
0:19:30 > 0:19:32but I didn't know much about dairying.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36However, we got the cows to go through the milking bale.
0:19:38 > 0:19:43Then, in 1963, he was the first farmer in the area
0:19:43 > 0:19:45to install a Herringbone milking parlour.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47He'd seen them in action
0:19:47 > 0:19:49on a study tour of Australia and New Zealand.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54I remember in Australia, driving with a journalist in a very tatty train,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57in Victoria, the state of Victoria,
0:19:57 > 0:19:58going north to the irrigation areas,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01and we were going there, he was going as a journalist
0:20:01 > 0:20:03and we were travelling together,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05and he said, "What do you want to see, Daaave?"
0:20:05 > 0:20:10And I said, "I really want to see how one man can look after 100 cows."
0:20:10 > 0:20:13"Oh, God, we'll see plenty of that!"
0:20:13 > 0:20:16And it was remarkable. When we got to this irrigation area,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21there were lots and lots of herds being run very efficiently by the farmer
0:20:21 > 0:20:25with really little input, labour input, from anything else.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28The Herringbone milking parlour was a big step forward
0:20:28 > 0:20:32in cutting down the labour, and milking cows efficiently.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42By the 1980s, David Hosford's once revolutionary milking parlour
0:20:42 > 0:20:45had been adopted by most dairy farmers.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Today, that technology is itself being replaced
0:20:50 > 0:20:54by systems that can milk 70 cows without any labour.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Once these cows have been trained,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03they can be milked by computer-automated machines,
0:21:03 > 0:21:05and rarely see a herdsman.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12But it was not just the way cows were milked,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16it was the way they were fed that changed radically after the war.
0:21:34 > 0:21:39Up until the 1930s, nearly all the food for cows came off the farm.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41They fed in the fields in the summer,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45and farmers dried grass and made hay for the winter.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50It was a labour-intensive, arduous and weather-dependent summer activity
0:21:50 > 0:21:52on most farms in Britain.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58By the 1970s, haymaking and these images had vanished,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01replaced by a new feed called silage.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12It's mid-June at Berkeley Farm in Wiltshire,
0:22:12 > 0:22:14and Nick Gosling is making silage.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19Silage is grass that is cut early,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22while it still has moisture, and then compressed.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Farmers found it to be much more nutritious for cattle feed than hay.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35It should be dry matter, about 35 per cent.
0:22:35 > 0:22:42And this is dry matter of about 15 or 14 per cent. So it's twice as wet as it needs to be.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51The idea was, it was cut last Sunday,
0:22:51 > 0:22:54and it was going to be picked up on Monday,
0:22:54 > 0:22:57and it rained Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
0:22:57 > 0:22:58We're now in Friday,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02and we've decided we can't wait any longer, and it's rained again today.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06We've picked it up and, if you see in there, you should find...
0:23:06 > 0:23:08little bits of wheat.
0:23:08 > 0:23:09There they are.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12There's a bit of wheat.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15There's a bit there.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20That's what we're after. That's what makes...that's the starch portion of the food.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24The transition from hay was a gradual one.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27It took time before farmers developed the skills
0:23:27 > 0:23:28to make good silage.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36The additive we're putting on the silage here,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40we now put a microbial additive on to make the silage work better.
0:23:40 > 0:23:45This is an acid one, and this acid was sulphuric acid.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50It used to rot the metal on the machinery,
0:23:50 > 0:23:51and it would rot our clothes.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56We'd completely come back after silage making with holes in our clothes,
0:23:56 > 0:24:00and if you didn't watch it, and it went in your face and eyes, you knew.
0:24:00 > 0:24:02You were in agony.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07David Hosford filmed the same changes on his Dorset farm.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13The next stage on was, make the silage at the buildings,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16when you had great big trailers, which now are huge.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19You see them on the road, full of stuff.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23I remember getting the local trailer maker in Durweston
0:24:23 > 0:24:28to make these trailers which were 12 by 8, I think, in size.
0:24:28 > 0:24:34"Oh, David, you don't want trailers that size, you'll come adrift!"
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Now, of course, they're tiny little trailers. "We'll make 'em," he said.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42"We'll make 'em if you want us to, but..."
0:24:42 > 0:24:44HE DRAWS BREATH
0:24:45 > 0:24:50Farmers who fed their dairy cattle silage instead of hay,
0:24:50 > 0:24:51were able to increase yields
0:24:51 > 0:24:55from around 15 to 25 litres of milk a day per cow.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59But another development was to double yields again.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02And this involved the use of genetics
0:25:02 > 0:25:05to modify the breed of the cow itself.
0:25:05 > 0:25:06Before the war,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10the dominant dairy breeds had been Ayrshire and Shorthorn.
0:25:10 > 0:25:16But the post-war policy that encouraged farmers to intensify output changed all that.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Every farmer feels that he's going to benefit
0:25:19 > 0:25:21if he has a cow that produces more milk.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23It's very easy to sell the farmers the idea
0:25:23 > 0:25:27that the cow that produces the most milk will make the most money.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31In the periods of the '50s and '60s and '70s,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34that was really the black and white Friesian cow,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38who was a very good cow for English conditions.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43However, meanwhile, in North America, - Canada and the USA -
0:25:43 > 0:25:47they were breeding what is now known as the North American Holstein.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51The North American Holstein cow was a barn-fed cow,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54not turned out to grass, mostly zero graze,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56kept in a barn the whole year round.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01Fed on very, very high-energy maize and alfalfa diets
0:26:01 > 0:26:05and she was designed to produce more and more and more milk per cow.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12- ORIGINAL VOICEOVER: - The breed, as a whole,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17is the result of careful selection for both conformation and yield...
0:26:17 > 0:26:21Increased productivity was the goal.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25And the Ministry of Agriculture and the Milk Marketing Board
0:26:25 > 0:26:27produced films to encourage it.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31This yearling is now ready to be admitted to the progeny test programme.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37From Chippenham, the young bulls are moved to an AI freezing unit.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46The collected semen is immediately processed in the laboratory.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Sufficient semen is collected from each bull on test
0:26:52 > 0:26:57to get 330 cows in calf in officially milk-recorded herds.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02The breeders were able to persuade the British farmer to go away from
0:27:02 > 0:27:06the classic British Friesian into the North American Holstein.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11We are talking now of cows that can produce 60 litres a day.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16If you can imagine 110 milk bottles outside your door in the morning,
0:27:16 > 0:27:19that's the sort of amount you can get out of a single cow.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22By the late 1970s,
0:27:22 > 0:27:26most British dairy farmers were adopting the American Holstein
0:27:26 > 0:27:28and yields had soared.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31- Bloody cold this morning. - It is bloody cold.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Are you going to come and film us bedding up?
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Yes, I've got to keep filming. You've got to keep the thing going.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40Will Hosford made the transition to Holsteins
0:27:40 > 0:27:44soon after he took over the farm from his father in the early 1980s.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48How are these animals doing? They look a bit skinny. I suppose they're all right?
0:27:48 > 0:27:51That's what you always say! You always say they're not growing.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55It's always quite difficult when you go from one generation to another.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57For many farmers, it doesn't go very smoothly.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00But I remember well the time it happened to me.
0:28:00 > 0:28:04I was driving the forage harvester, as I always do,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08and bloody little William came along and said, "I think I'm going to take over this."
0:28:08 > 0:28:10I thought I'd been doing it quite well.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14And, from that day onwards, he had taken over the farm.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17Very amiably, and the transition went very smoothly,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20but I reckon that was the day when things changed.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25Ha-ha! I'm sure he was only too happy
0:28:25 > 0:28:27that I drove the forage harvester!
0:28:27 > 0:28:30He suffered from hay fever terribly,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and I'm sure he was only too happy to hand over this noisy machine
0:28:33 > 0:28:37to some young person who's only too happy to drive it up and down the field.
0:28:41 > 0:28:42I decided then
0:28:42 > 0:28:47that I needed to increase the financial turnover of the farm.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50I changed the breeding of the cows.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55And I produced a more Holstein type cow, which is a bigger cow,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57which will produce more milk.
0:29:02 > 0:29:03Come on.
0:29:05 > 0:29:10My father was probably producing around 4,000 to 4,500 litres a cow.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15We eventually got to around 8,000 to 8,100 litres per cow.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19The cows changed radically, I'd say.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23They became much more angular and larger.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Come on, Gary! Come on. Go on!
0:29:27 > 0:29:29No, you old bugger! Come on. Come on.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32The move to intensively farmed Holstein cows
0:29:32 > 0:29:35that Will Hosford and many other dairy farmers made
0:29:35 > 0:29:37came at a price.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39The years of expansion
0:29:39 > 0:29:43saw an increase in the production diseases suffered by dairy cows,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46mastitis, infertility and lameness,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49problems that persist today.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Any suggestions on how to move a ton and a half of bull?
0:29:53 > 0:29:56- Come on, Gary!- Go on, Gary!
0:29:56 > 0:29:58- Ha-ha-ha!- Come on!
0:29:58 > 0:30:00Come on!
0:30:00 > 0:30:02An image of cows with a bull, and the bull lame,
0:30:02 > 0:30:04has a certain irony about it
0:30:04 > 0:30:06because generally bulls don't get lame,
0:30:06 > 0:30:10partly because they're not under the same pressure as cows
0:30:10 > 0:30:13and partly because farmers are more likely to look after them.
0:30:15 > 0:30:21In dairy cows, 80% of the lameness is in the hind legs
0:30:21 > 0:30:26and 80% of that is in the outer claw of the hind feet.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28And that, in part, reflects the fact
0:30:28 > 0:30:33that they've been selected for cows with bigger and bigger udders,
0:30:33 > 0:30:35and, if you can imagine two feet going straight down,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38you stick something like a medicine ball in-between them,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42it throws the knees out, ankles in, the weight onto the outside foot,
0:30:42 > 0:30:44increases the pressure on the outside foot,
0:30:44 > 0:30:48and that's the one that gets... the sole gets torn off.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51Right, 407 I've seen hanging about here.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53- 407.- And 397.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56I wonder if we've got 397 already.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01'They have a tendency to have more problems with lameness, yes.'
0:31:01 > 0:31:04I think their hooves are thinner
0:31:04 > 0:31:08and their legs, in particular, perhaps are not as good,
0:31:08 > 0:31:10particularly if you're someone like me
0:31:10 > 0:31:13who wants them to walk quite a long way to pasture every day.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15That can cause trouble,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19yes, and we did have an increase in incidence in lameness, definitely.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24'As far as the cow is concerned, the main impact of lameness is it hurts.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26'As far as the farmer is concerned,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30'it's another reason for a cow breaking down.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33'A lame cow will eat less. She will lose body condition.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36'She'll give less milk. She will probably become infertile.'
0:31:36 > 0:31:40And then she will have to be culled from physical exhaustion
0:31:40 > 0:31:42after maybe two or three lactations.
0:31:59 > 0:32:04From the time David Hosford bought his first dairy cows in 1952,
0:32:04 > 0:32:09to the time his son took control of the farm in the early 1980s,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12dairy farmers had prospered.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14Farming was easier.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18Subsidies, advisers, everything.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21And prices were guaranteed all the time.
0:32:21 > 0:32:25We used to have a price review every year, when the prices for most things were SET.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Nowadays you can't really believe that.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Encouraged by advisers from the Milk Marketing Board
0:32:32 > 0:32:33and the Ministry of Agriculture,
0:32:33 > 0:32:36they'd used science to change cattle feeds,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39they'd adopted new technologies for milking
0:32:39 > 0:32:44and they'd embraced genetics to change the breed of the dairy cow itself.
0:32:44 > 0:32:48The result had been that milk yields had increased fourfold
0:32:48 > 0:32:50in just two generations.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54And, while farmers were being urged to produce more and more,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58the public was being urged to drink more and more.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04- NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: - In 1957, the slogan "Drinka Pinta Milka Day" was created,
0:33:04 > 0:33:09and in a few years became one of the best-known advertising slogans of the century.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12The word "pinta" achieved dictionary recognition
0:33:12 > 0:33:16and today the public knows well the difference between a pinta and a pint.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19Politicians too made use of it.
0:33:19 > 0:33:20Buy it,
0:33:20 > 0:33:21drink it.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23That's my advice.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25It's nice.
0:33:25 > 0:33:26It's good for you.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28Drinka Pinta Milka Day.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Drinka Pinta Milka Day...
0:33:32 > 0:33:34But the public didn't respond.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37By the 1960s, consumption had levelled off.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40By the 1970s,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43I think people are beginning to worry
0:33:43 > 0:33:46about the production of milk
0:33:46 > 0:33:50or, rather, the massive over-production of milk.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52And it's not just a British problem.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55It's a European-wide problem.
0:33:55 > 0:34:01And once British farming goes fully into the CAP,
0:34:01 > 0:34:05the Common Agricultural Policy, in 1978, it becomes clear,
0:34:05 > 0:34:10I think, on a European level, that we are massively overproducing milk.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14Latest figures confirm Britain, like Europe,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16has a food mountain out of control.
0:34:16 > 0:34:19Despite Ethiopia, despite Bob Geldof,
0:34:19 > 0:34:23its value increased by 75% last year.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27By the early '80s, the popular press, on bad news days,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30is picking up on things like "butter mountains"
0:34:30 > 0:34:32and "milk lakes".
0:34:32 > 0:34:37And this is really very, very bad publicity for farming.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41But it's also beginning to put pressure on the EC.
0:34:41 > 0:34:46From the '80s, it's clear the CAP is going to have to be reformed
0:34:46 > 0:34:52and dairying is the first bit that's picked off.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55- ORIGINAL REPORT: - ..may increase five-fold by 1990.
0:34:55 > 0:34:56Something had to change.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01Either the milk prices had to fall sharply
0:35:01 > 0:35:06or another way of cutting production had to be found.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12And, at that time, there were calculations made
0:35:12 > 0:35:16which said that, in order to get rid of the surpluses,
0:35:16 > 0:35:20the milk price would have to fall by 25 per cent.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24And that was politically unacceptable
0:35:24 > 0:35:26within the European Community,
0:35:26 > 0:35:32where, of course, farmers had a huge say, particularly in the 1980s,
0:35:32 > 0:35:39because much of the European policy was the Common Agricultural Policy.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44That was the centrepiece of the European project in many ways, at that time.
0:35:44 > 0:35:51So, the alternative was to impose quotas and force production to drop.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54Under the quota system
0:35:54 > 0:35:59individual farmers had to restrict their output to 1981 levels.
0:36:00 > 0:36:04Milk quotas came in in 1984.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06A little bit out of the blue.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08We'd been told they were coming
0:36:08 > 0:36:11but they did come out of the blue and they did shake us all up,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15to the extent that we had no idea, really, as far as I remember,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18how much milk we were going to be allowed to sell.
0:36:18 > 0:36:19And, worse than that,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22if the milk lorry took away milk that was above quota
0:36:22 > 0:36:24we were going to be charged a fine.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27We were not going to get the price of the milk.
0:36:27 > 0:36:32We were also going to get beaten to supply some money for the privilege of them taking it away.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39And I remember we were so ill-informed about it -
0:36:39 > 0:36:40perhaps because we were a bit dim,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43but in general farmers didn't know what was going to happen -
0:36:43 > 0:36:46that we loaded milk into 40-gallon drums
0:36:46 > 0:36:48and took it away to feed our calves on
0:36:48 > 0:36:50and we forced the milk down the calves
0:36:50 > 0:36:52because we thought it would be better to do that
0:36:52 > 0:36:54than it would to put it down the drain.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57But, in the end, the thing did become rationalised
0:36:57 > 0:37:01and I think, even in the first year of quotas,
0:37:01 > 0:37:03we managed to keep within our quota.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07But it did kibosh any expansion
0:37:07 > 0:37:12and that was in strict contrast to all the rest of my farming career.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16You could always sell, at a predetermined price,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18any amount of milk that you produced.
0:37:18 > 0:37:231984 was a defining year for the dairy industry.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27Milk quotas marked the beginning of the end of the system of guarantees
0:37:27 > 0:37:32that farmers like David Hosford had experienced all their working lives.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36But, even then, another significant change was on the way.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44ORIGINAL NARRATION: Most milkmen were small traders who'd only one cart or pram
0:37:44 > 0:37:46and served just a few streets,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49but they usually made their rounds three times a day,
0:37:49 > 0:37:53starting before six in the morning, and each time with fresh milk.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59The other great change that took place in the 20th century was how milk was sold.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03Fairly early on in the 20th century,
0:38:03 > 0:38:08big combines bought and sold milk, particularly in the big cities.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11But there was still a very large number
0:38:11 > 0:38:16of small and localised suppliers, sometimes producer-retailers,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20sometimes simply retailers who bought from local dairies,
0:38:20 > 0:38:21or whatever.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23But one thing that held them together
0:38:23 > 0:38:28was this curious British thing of delivering milk to the doorstep.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32Now, I don't think that happens anywhere else in the world!
0:38:43 > 0:38:49At Berkeley Farm in Wiltshire, Chris Gosling is just finishing milking.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52And Nick, her husband, is taking it along the road to their dairy.
0:38:56 > 0:38:57From the 1920s,
0:38:57 > 0:39:01when Nick's grandfather began to sell his milk in Swindon,
0:39:01 > 0:39:03the Goslings bottled their own milk
0:39:03 > 0:39:07and throughout the post-war years they sold it, door-to-door.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12This is Nick's father loading up churns in the late 1950s.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18Farming goes in dips and troughs. Highs and lows.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21And whenever there was a trough the milk rounds pulled us through.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31This is Dad and one of the roundsmen out trying to catch the horses,
0:39:31 > 0:39:34early in the morning, probably about 6 o'clock, to go on a milk round.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37And these horses sometimes didn't want to be caught
0:39:37 > 0:39:41and I always remember seeing Dad running behind these horses trying to catch them,
0:39:41 > 0:39:45and he'd get his cap and throw it on the ground and stamp on it!
0:39:45 > 0:39:47And I was a little boy up in the bedroom watching.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53The horses knew the round themselves, so they'd go off in the morning
0:39:53 > 0:39:58and on one Christmas Eve Taffy went off with Strawberry.
0:39:58 > 0:40:03He drank too much whisky - Taffy did - at his first few calls.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06He was then found at the end of his round.
0:40:06 > 0:40:10The horse had walked the whole round without him getting off the cart
0:40:10 > 0:40:13and he was asleep in the back of the cart.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16They got back to the farm with all the milk still on board.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Dad then said, "Well, you'll have to go back out again,"
0:40:19 > 0:40:22and the horse refused to go because it had done the round that day.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24So why would it want to go again?
0:40:27 > 0:40:32But huge changes in the way milk was sold were looming.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34The door-step delivery was being eclipsed
0:40:34 > 0:40:36by the emergence of supermarkets.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Up to the late 1970s,
0:40:40 > 0:40:42the distribution of milk was controlled
0:40:42 > 0:40:46by the large processing and delivery companies.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48And they were able to fix the price.
0:40:50 > 0:40:54It would appear there was a cartel operating in the dairy industry
0:40:54 > 0:40:57and, if the supermarkets wanted to buy milk,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00they could do so at the same price
0:41:00 > 0:41:02that the retail customer on the round was buying milk
0:41:02 > 0:41:04and it would come in a glass bottle
0:41:04 > 0:41:07and it would be delivered to the front door of the supermarket
0:41:07 > 0:41:10from the retail round.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14And that just wasn't feasible as far as the supermarkets were concerned.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20The first supermarket to break this system was Sainsbury's.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23In June 1980, it began to sell milk half a penny cheaper
0:41:23 > 0:41:25than the doorstep price.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28It was a fundamental change and, in time,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32it broke the economic power of the processors.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34I think that was a major turning point, because...
0:41:34 > 0:41:37I mean, in some ways sadly,
0:41:37 > 0:41:42because the retail round had performed a number of different functions for society as a whole,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45but it was the beginning of the end of the retail round.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51We were actually not affected by it too much
0:41:51 > 0:41:53at the beginning of the '80s, even,
0:41:53 > 0:41:56because we only had the one store here in Rowton.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59We were supplying them with milk at the time,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03so it didn't matter too much if they sold some of our milk through their store.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06But they were taken over and Somerfields came in
0:42:06 > 0:42:10and then the multi out-of-town stores started up
0:42:10 > 0:42:14and suddenly we realised, yes, our doorstep trade was going.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27There has been a remarkable transformation.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31In the 1980s, the doorstep deliveries of milk
0:42:31 > 0:42:34were as much as 80 per cent
0:42:34 > 0:42:37of total liquid milk consumption.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40Currently, that's down to about 12 per cent,
0:42:40 > 0:42:44with the supermarkets taking most of the rest.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58The influence of the supermarkets was profound.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01Not only did they revolutionise the way milk was sold,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05they drove changes in the nature of the product itself.
0:43:12 > 0:43:16Nick's milk arrives at their processing plant.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19The Goslings process and bottle it themselves.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22It comes from their herd of Guernsey cows,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24a tradition Nick inherited from his father.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29He believed in those early days that the best milk
0:43:29 > 0:43:30was still Channel Island milk
0:43:30 > 0:43:33and our customers deserve the best milk,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36so therefore they got the best cows, which were Guernseys.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41When the milk arrives at the plant it's raw,
0:43:41 > 0:43:44and before the public can buy it it has to be pasteurised.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49This is the pasteurising unit, which is basically a large heat exchanger.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53It raises the temperature of the milk from five degrees centigrade
0:43:53 > 0:43:55up to 72 degrees,
0:43:55 > 0:43:58and holds it at that temperature for 15 seconds,
0:43:58 > 0:44:02which is the pasteurisation technique.
0:44:02 > 0:44:04As soon as it's done the pasteurisation,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07it then cools it back down again to five degrees,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10for keeping quality, so it will keep longer.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13It's very important to get the temperature down as quick as we can.
0:44:14 > 0:44:20From 1945, most milk in Britain was being pasteurised,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22but as supermarkets began to sell it
0:44:22 > 0:44:26they wanted the product to have a particular consistency and look,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30and therefore required it to pass through a second process,
0:44:30 > 0:44:32called homogenisation.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38The homogenisation process is, you basically force the milk
0:44:38 > 0:44:40through a very small hole,
0:44:40 > 0:44:44which breaks all the fat globules down into a very small size,
0:44:44 > 0:44:47which is dispersed uniformly through the product
0:44:47 > 0:44:49and you don't get a cream line.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51A long time ago, the industry decided it was better,
0:44:51 > 0:44:53this more uniform product,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56and that's why the larger dairies have gone with that.
0:44:59 > 0:45:04And so, from the 1980s, most milk sold in Britain was homogenised.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07But not the milk sold by the Goslings.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10With ours it's the old-fashioned way. No homogenising,
0:45:10 > 0:45:14and you end up with that cream line on the top, which the customers seem to love.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17They often tell us about the joy of opening it up
0:45:17 > 0:45:19and pouring the cream off the top.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22Yeah, we're one of the few still doing that.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37By the 1990s, the supermarkets had begun to change the face
0:45:37 > 0:45:39of the dairy industry.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42But the Milk Marketing Board continued to protect the price
0:45:42 > 0:45:45that farmers received for their milk.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49Then, in 1994, there was a fundamental change.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54As part of a wider policy of using free markets and competition,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56the Government abolished the Board.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00Economic power slipped back to the retailers.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04While the MMB was there,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08the price was by and large protected.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12Once you remove that price protection,
0:46:12 > 0:46:17then the supermarkets' power grows very rapidly.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20And I suspect what you're getting
0:46:20 > 0:46:25is, as in other respects, a return to the 1920s,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27where you have potential cartelisation.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30In other words,
0:46:30 > 0:46:35one or two or three big buyers of milk.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38In this case, the supermarkets,
0:46:38 > 0:46:43who can eventually dictate the price to the producer.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47The whole thing went completely wrong and it all became a turmoil,
0:46:47 > 0:46:49much as it had been in 1934,
0:46:49 > 0:46:52before the Milk Marketing Board took up.
0:46:52 > 0:46:57And the dairy farmer had no power in the markets at all.
0:46:57 > 0:47:02It was all in the hands of these roguish buyers, these processors,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06aided and abetted by the supermarkets.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08And we were ground down and ground down
0:47:08 > 0:47:11until dairy farming was unprofitable.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20Right, good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25It's time to make a start. We're running late but we've had a very busy morning this morning.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28It's too loud, Charlotte, can you turn it down a bit?
0:47:28 > 0:47:32The end of the Milk Marketing Board was another defining moment in dairying
0:47:32 > 0:47:37and, for years after, it presented a huge crisis for many of its farmers.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39We're here today on behalf of Jeff and Helena...
0:47:40 > 0:47:44Thousands just gave up and sold their herds.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46..we have a total of 207
0:47:46 > 0:47:51and I think it's a real dispersal sale, ladies and gentlemen.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55Right from the oldest cow through to the baby cows,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57through to the Hereford bull.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59Have you left anything behind?
0:47:59 > 0:48:03Two Belgian Blues. He's got some nice Belgian Blues, I saw them last week...
0:48:03 > 0:48:07In 1994 there were more than 35,000 dairy farmers.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10By 2000 the number had almost halved.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15The scale of decline was unlike anything the industry had ever witnessed.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17700, 700, 720.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22At 720, 740, 760, 80 on top?
0:48:22 > 0:48:27780, 800? At 780. On the hammer, then, at 780 guineas,
0:48:27 > 0:48:29I sell at 780.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46By 2000, the price farmers were paid for a litre of their milk
0:48:46 > 0:48:50had fallen from 25p to 17p, below the cost of production.
0:48:50 > 0:48:55Nick and Chris Gosling's Wiltshire farm faced bankruptcy.
0:48:55 > 0:48:56Hello, there!
0:48:57 > 0:48:58Hello!
0:48:58 > 0:48:59How are you? Eh?
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Hello!
0:49:01 > 0:49:05When it got to the point where the profits were all falling off,
0:49:05 > 0:49:08farm and milk rounds,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11the only way we could stay in farming
0:49:11 > 0:49:13was to become organic
0:49:13 > 0:49:17and go upmarket and form our own niche.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24I've always pestered Nick, ever since we got married,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27that we should be organic.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29But it was his decision.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32It was a commercial decision to go ahead.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36As the time has gone on, even Nick,
0:49:36 > 0:49:38who can be quite cynical about these things
0:49:38 > 0:49:42- he calls homoeopathy "Harry Potter medicine" -
0:49:42 > 0:49:47he has actually decided that organic farming is the right way to go,
0:49:47 > 0:49:50and he does prefer it,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54in the way that we treat the animals, the way we treat the land.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59So I think we're both really glad that we did become organic.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02This is my friend, Veronica.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09We converted the farm to organic. The cows became organic.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11The milk became organic.
0:50:11 > 0:50:16Now all we needed was to now see if we could sell our own organic milk.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20There were buyers of organic milk,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23but unfortunately the market was only growing at five per cent a year
0:50:23 > 0:50:28but production suddenly jumped to 15, 20, 30 per cent a year,
0:50:28 > 0:50:30so suddenly there was too much milk.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33And the organic milk price then slumped.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38Well, we actually had the herd up for sale
0:50:38 > 0:50:43and we were going to probably have to close the processing plant
0:50:43 > 0:50:45and rent the buildings out.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49And my wife and I sat up in bed one morning
0:50:49 > 0:50:51and realised that we were only a month away from selling.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54The brochure was here, ready to go out to the public to buy,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56and we suddenly thought,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59gosh, we don't know what else we can do other than dairy farming.
0:50:59 > 0:51:05So I said, "Well, I'll give it one last chance and try to find someone who wants our milk,"
0:51:05 > 0:51:08and luckily we got hold of this company called Abel and Cole,
0:51:08 > 0:51:12and now we're up and running with Abel and Cole.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17Abel and Cole is an organic food delivery service.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20As well as buying the Goslings' milk,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24it buys their farmhouse cream and handmade butter.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42Keith Abel is visiting Nick.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45He wants to discuss plans for the future of their partnership.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47There you are.
0:51:47 > 0:51:48That's the plan.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51- That's the present milking parlour. - Yep.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54- We're extending that building right down here...- Right.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58..dry cows, springers, and as they calve they go into these pens.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01- As they go into the pens, they then enter the new parlour.- Right.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05New silage clamp there, and the old silage clamp, which is up here,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08then becomes an extra building for the cattle.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11So, it's all to do with cow comfort. We've designed it for the cows.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15- At the moment the dry cows are over here somewhere? - Spread over all these buildings.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18When this is cold and frosted, you have to take them across concrete.
0:52:18 > 0:52:23And they fall over, and this sort of thing, so we're going to keep them all in one building...
0:52:23 > 0:52:26'80 per cent of my production is now going to Abel and Cole,
0:52:26 > 0:52:29'which is too much, in a way, to have in one customer.
0:52:29 > 0:52:33'But as long as they keep growing, and they keep wanting our product,
0:52:33 > 0:52:36'and we keep supplying what they want,
0:52:36 > 0:52:39'it's a marvellous relationship we have and we're all very happy.'
0:52:41 > 0:52:46While the relationship with Abel and Cole secured Nick Gosling's business,
0:52:46 > 0:52:51thousands of dairy farmers left the industry and milk production began to fall.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55This decline in production forced large retailers
0:52:55 > 0:52:57to rethink their strategy,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59and for some farmers
0:52:59 > 0:53:03the fear of a shortage of milk created an opportunity.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Will Hosford took advantage
0:53:06 > 0:53:10and made a deal with the country's largest seller of milk.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16A little over 18 months ago,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19Tesco decided to have a dedicated producer group
0:53:19 > 0:53:24and I, as a milk producer in the South,
0:53:24 > 0:53:29was invited to become a Tesco producer, which I then became.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Tesco, along with other supermarkets,
0:53:34 > 0:53:36began to obtain their supplies of milk
0:53:36 > 0:53:40through direct contracts with a limited number of farmers.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42Will is one of around 900 producers
0:53:42 > 0:53:47who supply the supermarket with a billion litres of milk a year.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51Ten years ago, they didn't need to have any involvement with farmers at all.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53They could go to a big processor
0:53:53 > 0:53:58and say, "I need so many litres of milk on tomorrow,
0:53:58 > 0:54:02"please deliver it, thank you very much, and this is what you'll get paid."
0:54:05 > 0:54:08Through the WI campaign, the NFU campaign,
0:54:08 > 0:54:12at a period of time when dairy farmers in particular
0:54:12 > 0:54:15were being paid rock-bottom prices,
0:54:15 > 0:54:19there was an impression that maybe the milk supply
0:54:19 > 0:54:23wouldn't be there in the future.
0:54:23 > 0:54:25And not only that, but provenance,
0:54:25 > 0:54:28ie, where all the milk came from,
0:54:28 > 0:54:32how the animals were kept and how the farms were farmed,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35became much more important in the public's eye.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37And, therefore, supermarkets in particular
0:54:37 > 0:54:40decided to go for a dedicated producer group
0:54:40 > 0:54:44where they knew exactly where their milk was coming from.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Emma Rutter coordinates the scheme.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51And I was hoping that maybe,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54with Liverpool University and all the rest of it,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57maybe we'd be able to get perhaps some work done
0:54:57 > 0:54:59on specific issues within lameness
0:54:59 > 0:55:03that might help us all understand a bit more about it.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05Yeah, we sort of...
0:55:05 > 0:55:10As you know, the first year of the project we were looking very much at lameness issues
0:55:10 > 0:55:13because that was one of the key issues that affected farmers.
0:55:13 > 0:55:19And also, consumers tend to notice the lame cows at the end of the herd, coming in last,
0:55:19 > 0:55:22because they've been waiting for the cows to cross the road.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25So it was both a consumer issue and a producer issue,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27so we looked at lameness first.
0:55:27 > 0:55:28But now we've bought...
0:55:28 > 0:55:32We have very much been blamed for what's happened in the past
0:55:32 > 0:55:36and I know, coming into it from a farming background
0:55:36 > 0:55:38and actually being two years at Tesco's,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40I realise the rather long memories
0:55:40 > 0:55:42of what's happened before,
0:55:42 > 0:55:45and people can't get over that.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50But we are out there to change and to actually say,
0:55:50 > 0:55:53we're not basing it on what's happening in the marketplace any more.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56We do realise we were part of that before, but actually
0:55:56 > 0:55:59now we're going to guarantee you your cost of production,
0:55:59 > 0:56:03and your milk price will never fall below that.
0:56:03 > 0:56:04Well, head for the gate.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09With the security of the Tesco deal in place,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Will Hosford began to return to a less intensive way of farming.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18I decided to go for a lower output system,
0:56:18 > 0:56:21more pasture based,
0:56:21 > 0:56:26and produce...not substantially, but a little less milk.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31All round, it'll be easier for me,
0:56:31 > 0:56:33and easier for the animals that I farm.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37He's gradually replacing the high-yielding Holsteins
0:56:37 > 0:56:40with lower-yielding Friesians.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42It's all part of his solution
0:56:42 > 0:56:45to the pressures he's faced in the last ten years.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51For Will and his father, David,
0:56:51 > 0:56:55this has been this story of their entire farming lives,
0:56:55 > 0:56:57constant change.
0:57:02 > 0:57:04Just watch as I get mown down!
0:57:06 > 0:57:10The people dairy-farming just three generations ago
0:57:10 > 0:57:14might have found it hard to imagine just how much their working lives
0:57:14 > 0:57:17would have changed over the century.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21They milked by hand and delivered to the door.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25Their cows produced 15 litres of milk a day.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28Today's cows produce 60.
0:57:28 > 0:57:34Supermarkets, new breeds and even milking parlours were unheard of.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38Until the 1980s they prospered, but from that time
0:57:38 > 0:57:43they've been witnesses to a revolution that saw thousands leave the land
0:57:43 > 0:57:47and those who stayed do so in a state of perpetual uncertainty.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56Hopefully she'll start pushing in a minute.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59But, even in a world of constant change,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03there are some things that stay pretty much as they always were.
0:58:20 > 0:58:23We're there. Once it starts licking.
0:58:27 > 0:58:29Job done. One live calf.
0:58:35 > 0:58:38Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:38 > 0:58:41E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk