In 2016 Rivermead Dairy Ltd was formed at Westcott Farm, to market high quality milk throughout the UK.  In the early days, milk from Westcott and four additional farms was traded into specialist markets in London and the Midlands. 

Predominantly our milk is sourced from Jersey dairy cattle which provides the constituents required for quality processing.  Much of our milk is used to produce high end cheeses and quality desserts, alongside traditional products such as Devonshire clotted cream and yoghurts. 

Milk is now collected with our own modern fleet of tankers from sixteen farms in the South of England and delivered daily to our processing customers. 

Rivermead Dairy Ltd is a member of the Dairy Transport Assurance Scheme, with Westcott and all milk producers being members of the Red Tractor Scheme.  These standards are practiced alongside the Dairy’s own high standards of farming and production, ensuring that we sell milk from farms with high standards of hygiene and welfare.  All milk is tested upon collection for constituent quality and hygiene purposes to ensure our customers only receive milk of the highest specifications. 

This business remains family run with Gordon overseeing orders, logistics and transport, aided by sons Mark and Kevin as co-directors.  We have a team of valued drivers who collect from the farms and deliver to our customers.  Finance and administration is managed by Sarah Huxtable, and quality and technical experience is provided by Peter Derbyshire. 

The company’s aim is to provide a first class product alongside an equally first class service to a core of premium customers and return a fair price to its suppliers.

We sincerely believe that the dedication, hard work and love which our supplying farmers have for the animals which are nurtured and cared for by them, and the land that they are custodians of, should be fairly rewarded. 

HISTORY

The farming business was started in 1989 by Hazel and Gordon Davis when they successfully became the tenants of Pugham farm, a 50 acre County Council owned farm at Westleigh in Devon.  As first generation farmers, a young couple at the ages of 26 and a young family they started with a handful of cows, a few pigs and gradually increased their, then herd of Friesian cows to 60 cows. 

The farm was capable of carrying no more cows and with the advent of high priced milk quota Gordon started trading dairy cows as an additional form of income and today that business continues successfully trading Holstein and crossbred cows alongside its mainstream farming commitments.

In 2002 the estate was re-organised and an opportunity arose for the family business now shortly to be joined by their eldest son Mark to take on two neighbouring farms and move to Westcott farm.  Over the coming years their dairy herd was expanded and continual investments took place in the form of modern welfare friendly facilities and investments in more cows, and a Jersey herd was established.

In 2012 Kevin our second eldest son joined the business and needing to expand our business further a new milking parlour and slurry store were added to the farm alongside an additional 120 Jerseys.

PRESENT DAY

As a business we wanted to commit ourselves to producing a quality product from the highest ethical and welfare standards possible and today Rivermead Jerseys at Westcott farm produces high quality Channel Island milk with an average of 5.6% butterfat, 4.06% protein and an average somatic cell count of 105, a bactoscan of 25 and a creditable herd average of milk in excess of 6750 litres per cow, and is leading the way to being one of the top herds in the South West of England with many recent successes in the show ring this past year alone, taking three Interbreed Championships at major agricultural shows and winning Breed Champion at every show entered in 2015.  Westcott farm is a part of the National Dairy Farm Assurance Schemes and takes animal health, welfare and cleanliness to very high standards.

The 280 Strong Jersey milking herd is grazed on our lush Devon pastures when weather allows, and access fresh grazing paddocks daily via newly laid cow tracks minimizing stress.  The Cows are brought in twice daily for milking during which time they have additional feed and are then allowed to walk back to pasture.

In the winter months milking cows are housed in free stall barns deep bedded on sea sand for maximum comfort and hygiene, and have access 24 hours a day to fresh food, water and are cleaned twice daily returning immediately after milking to their accommodation.

Herd health and nutrition are monitored regularly by our own team here at Westcott as well as fortnightly visits by our farm vet and a nutrition expert with whom we work very closely to make sure that the welfare of our livestock are at the highest standards possible, taking a pro-active view and firmly believing that prevention is far better than cure.

All young stock born on the farm are reared firstly as baby calves here at Westcott Farm and then moved to our young stock unit at Pugham Farm where they stay until re-joining the herd. All calves and the heifers are constantly monitored for health, welfare and regularly weighed and handled to make sure they are reaching optimum performance.

Recent investment into the dairy unit includes a parlour update, automatic footbath, segregation gate and rotating cow brushes for ultimate cow comfort.