‘It’s very challenging’: how the Duke of Westminster’s farm is taking on the climate crisis
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- Lea Manor Farm lost up to 6 litres of milk per cow per day during the June heatwave when temperatures hit 36C, with some UK farms seeing 10-litre drops per cow
- Grosvenor Farms saw its profit before tax fall to £2.6m from £3.6m as UK and overseas oversupply drove milk prices down as much as 50% this year, according to managing director Mark Roach
- The Duke of Westminster's 2,600-cow operation milks 360 cows per hour using an automated carousel and supplies Müller and Tesco, with 29,000-litre tankers heading to a Manchester plant daily
- Mark Preston, a Grosvenor executive trustee, warned that fertiliser supply chain disruptions from the Strait of Hormuz blockade could push food prices higher next year, calling concerns 'very real'
- Grosvenor is building a 2.4-hectare biomethane plant on the estate to convert up to 170,000 tonnes of cow manure into 72GWh of renewable gas per year — enough for 6,000 homes — starting in 2027
- The farm keeps cows indoors on concrete year-round, a practice used by only 8% of UK dairy herds, and stopped buying mined phosphate or potash fertilisers 15 years ago as part of circular farming
- Three-quarters of England and all of Wales are officially in drought, leaving wheat at half normal height and broccoli yields down 50%, forcing greater reliance on imports from countries such as Spain
Why it matters: Despite a 50% milk price collapse and per-cow heat losses of 6 litres a day, Grosvenor Farms posted £2.6m in profit and is doubling down on a 72GWh biomethane plant — while the trustee's warning that Iran-war fertiliser disruption will hit food prices next year links the farm's fortunes directly to households' grocery bills.
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