TURNING lazily in the wind, the modern wind turbine which generates electricity to supply around 50pc of the power needs for the Milner family at Dotterel farm at Weaverthorpe has become one of the best known landmarks in East Yorkshire.

Built some ten years ago, this wind generator has already paid for itsself and today provides a constant supply of cheap and clean power for the modern pig and poultry units on the farm.

Dotterel farm is a typical East York's Wolds farm, growing winter wheat, winter barley and oilseed rape making use of all the pig and poultry manure from their livestock units to grow good crops with the minimum amount of bought-in artificial fertiliser.

These crops are then processed on the farm through a modern mill-and-mix plant to provide food for the pigs and laying hens. All the cereals they produce are used to feed their livestock which means they can guarantee the pig meat and the eggs they sell are all free from antibiotics, growth promoters and hormones. Once she realised this, Helen started to process and sell a wide range of home-produced pig and poultry products direct to the general public.

Because the farm at Weaverthorpe is relatively isolated, and not a suitable site for a farm shop, Helen began selling produce to their local village shop at Weaverthorpe as well as the local farm shop at Butterwick. In addition to this, they have started to take stalls at the farmers markets, which are rapidly gaining popularity in country towns, where they can sell their produce direct to the public at retail prices.

These farmers markets have been very well received by the general public and Helen told me they have already got customers who shop with them on a regular basis for pork, dry-cured bacon and her range of handmade sausages. The regular monthly market in the pig sheds at Malton is their favourite venue.

Helen stressed that it is vital to maintain a regular date in the calendar which she believes benefits both buyers and sellers; she would rather go once a month to a larger venue than weekly to some of the smaller ones.

As with most modern-day young farmers, computers have become an every day part of the Milners' farming life but having considered internet trading as a means of selling their food products, they decided this is not the way for them just yet.

They do, however, sell goods by mail order to a group of regular customers. Orders are prepared and packaged to suit individual requirements and they can deliver local orders themselves or send insulated packages farther afield.

Because of the distance the farm is from the nearest telephone exchange, the internet service which BT can provide is rather poor but services are expected to improve as modern technology gets better and internet trading will become the marketing method of the future.

Anthony Milner aims to farm self-sufficiently and has recently installed his own borehole to complete the picture. To complement this unusual farming system the couple are currently developing a marketing plan which will allow them to sell as much of their home-produced pork and eggs direct to the general public as possible.

Anthony is the fourth generation of his family to farm at Weaverthorpe and aims to produce high-quality foodstuffs at the lowest cost.

Employed on the farm are five full-time and one part-time staff.

Like everyone else in farming at the moment, the Milners are being hit hard by low prices directly attributable to the chaos caused by foot and mouth. They are very concerned about the way the supermarkets have manipulated markets to keep the farmgate prices of home-produced food products at uneconomic levels.

To counter this, they have opted for self-sufficiency and a high-quality product and are now trying to move into direct marketing of some of their produce. These are the areas many more farmers will have to explore when the current foot and mouth crisis is over and life regains some normality again.

Updated: 09:15 Thursday, January 31, 2002