End to local milk production 8/10/12
Local milk production in the Western Isles has come to an end with the last farm selling off its herd of diary cows.
The abundance of cheap supermarket milk and the added costs of island farming has forced Goathill Farm on Lewis to make the decision to stop.
The last of the farm’s 40 or so Friesian and Holstein Friesian crosses have been sold off at the Dingwall mart.
Production will now shift to raising beef cattle and sheep.
The Mackenzie family bought the 160 acre tenanted Goathill Farm in 1960.
The family, who have been farming locally for about a century, already ran Melbost Farm. Later diary production at Melbost was halted.
Melbost was one of the first farms to be tested free of bovine TB when the disease
was rife across Scotland. The unique Tuberculousis-