NIGEL AKEHURST VISITS: HOOK & SON
TURNING A CORNER AFTER TB SETBACK This month Nigel Akehurst visits Hook and Son to meet father and son team Phil and Steve Hook, organic dairy and raw milk producers located at Longleys Farm in Hailsham, East Sussex.
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It’s been a turbulent few years at Hook and Son. On Friday 13 April 2018, one of their young dairy heifers tested positive for TB on a premovement test. “We lost our TB-free status and our ability to sell raw milk, all because of 2mm on a skin test,” Steve said. Up until that point their turnover had been pretty high, at just under £1 million, and after costs they made a small profit. Overnight their income crashed and suddenly they were losing £7,000 a week. They successfully crowd-funded to keep going and received generous support from their customers, including donations, private loans and many letters.
“At the same time as incurring massive losses we’ve had to invest in the business to turn it around so we could generate income again,” explained Steve. In the initial aftermath, while unable to sell their raw milk direct, they processed all their milk into butter and ghee while they sourced, financed and installed a pasteurising machine, getting sign off from their local environmental health officer in under three weeks. “All the doorstep rounds switched over to pasteurised and pretty much everyone stayed,” said Phil. “At farmers’ markets sales dropped, but our other products like butter, ghee and dairy beef took
> Steve and Phi Hook
SEPTEMBER 2021 | WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET
off,” added Steve. “I feel like we’re turning a corner. We’ve got a fantastic team.” Having spent the past three years getting their costs down and income back up, they are now breaking even, but still have an awful lot of losses and loans to pay off.
BACKGROUND
Phil and Steve Hook have been in partnership since 1991 at Longleys Farm in Hailsham, on the western edge of the Pevensey Levels. They converted to organic in 1998 and became Soil Association-accredited in 2000. After converting to organic they had one or two good years of
