Kelly Seaton
Cheshire
Dairy (housed)
DAIRY (HOUSED), CHESHIRE: Kelly and her husband Ed farm 200 pedigree Holsteins on their 175-acre (71-hectare) farm and sell the milk to Belton Farm cheesemakers, who turn it into an aged Red Leicester-style cheese called Red Fox. Ed’s family has been dairy farming for over 100 years but bought the current farm on the Shropshire/Cheshire border in 2010.
Kelly is not from a farming background but while growing up in the countryside in Shropshire was always interested in agriculture. She joined her local Young Farmers Club and at the age of 17 met a female dairy farmer and started helping her with milk recording and paperwork.
She met Ed at Shropshire’s famous one-day agricultural show at Newport. They married in 2013 and now have three children. The children are home educated so are very involved in the life of the farm.
All the family take a keen interest in showing their pedigree Holsteins, attending around two or three local shows, and one large national one each year. The children show their calves, with their annual highlight being the All Britain All Breeds Calf Show. In 2022 Ed was proud to be named Grand Champion at the Dairy Day Show in Telford for one of his home-bred Holsteins.
The Holstein herd is managed intensively and fed concentrates, minerals and silages to make the cows as productive as possible. Milked three times a day, the cows yield a daily average of 35 litres, although the figure can rise to 60 when a cow is lactating. “Our primary target is to produce high quality, high quantity milk to service our mortgage and provide a future for our children,” says Kelly.
That does not mean that care is not taken of the farm’s environmental impact. Maize and herbal leys (a mix of herbs, grasses and legumes) are grown for silage, but the leys also provide structure and nutrients for the farm’s soils and help prevent erosion. Fertility is provided by spreading the cows’ manure, which also helps the bottom line. ”We see slurry as an asset not a waste product,” says Kelly. “As fertiliser prices have rocketed, using muck efficiently has become a no-brainer.”
Recently the farm has started hosting school visits, enabling children from primary age upwards to understand what farming is all about.
Showing cows and spending time with her children. Kelly also has a strong interest in international politics and how it affects agriculture.
Talking Point
Kelly believes dairy farmers are not getting a fair price for their milk. “I think the lack of conversation surrounding the poor milk price is startling. We are in a worse position now than we were in 2012 or 2014 yet there seems to be little interest in enabling farmers to run sustainable businesses. Governments and retailers are squeezing from both ends. Whereas during previous periods of difficulty farmers had a voice, now they have no voice. Dairy farmers are in a particularly tricky position as, unlike arable farmers, they cannot protest by stopping selling their milk – you can’t turn milk off. So we have less leverage, and it’s hard to get heard. Soon small and medium-sized family farms like us will become a rare breed and only the large industrial-scale ones will be left.”
Declared interests
Member of National Farmers Union
Knowledge and Exchange Manager at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, since 23rd September 2024
Director of the No Farmers, No Food campaign - a movement led by farmers, since 2024