Rhys Lougher - Ty Tanglwyst Dairy

Training opportunities through Lantra helped Rhys Lougher of Ty Tanglwyst Dairy, Bridgend, give added value to the family business by setting up a pasteurising plant on the farm to sell milk to local customers.

Rhys Lougher

"We are unique in our marketplace, as there’s no other small dairy around here doing this.”

 

Training Helped Find Niche in Local Market

The dairy now sells fresh milk and cream which is distributed by local milkmen, restaurants, pubs, golf courses, cafes, care homes and a local specialist ice cream manufacturer.

Rhys took Foundation courses in:

• Food Hygiene
• Dairy Hygiene
• Cheesemaking
• On-Farm Processing
• Marketing of Organic Milk.

The training courses, funded by Lantra’s Farming Connect Skills Development Project, gave him the skills he needed to expand his family’s business.

Rhys briefly considered introducing cheese-making and ice-cream manufacture to the dairy, but decided to opt for bottled milk after a visit to Bavaria with Future Farmers of Wales in 2004.

He said: "We are unique in our marketplace, as there’s no other small dairy around here doing this.

"We know our milk is better. One shopkeeper stocked ours and another (cheaper) brand, but it was ours that sold. And his sales of papers and sweets went up too. It says it all."

Rhys’ entrepreneurial spirit won him the FG/Waitrose Best Young Farmer Producer award for 2007.

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Find out more about a career in dairy farming