South Caernarfon Creameries is Wales’ leading farmer owned dairy co-operative
Our Members
Be part of the South Caernarfon Creamery family. All of our family owned member farmers who supply us with their milk also own a share in the company. Our member farmers are at the core of everything that we do. We are committed to offering sustainable, competitive terms for farmers as well as focusing on driving sales, supply and profitability.
We are:
- Transparent in everything we do
- Cost sensitive to assist with profitability for the Creamery; a direct benefit to member farmers
- Reviewing products, streamlining where necessary or focusing on new product development to drive sales
- Constantly monitoring market trends and evolving to fulfil industry requirements and consumer demands.
- Communication focused: regular communication is sent out to members whether it’s through newsletters or the regular farmer meetings. Our annual AGM which usually takes place in July provides the opportunity for all members to get together, hear about how the Creamery has performed during the previous year and listen to an industry-based guest speaker.
Quality Standards
To maintain quality, our member farmers are audited on a regular basis in line with the requirements for the Red Tractor Scheme as well as our own internal quality standards.
Benefits with our Milk Supplier Contract
We believe that our payment schedules within our Milk Supplier contracts truly reflect the cost of production at different times of the year and are fair in terms of the constituent and volume production. Benefits and returns are weighted in favour of constituents and quality rather than members receiving fixed payments. Use our milk calculator to compare.
Read more about our members:
Penmaen Isaf is a small family farm near Machynlleth, mid-Wales. The farm has been in the family since 1960 and today is run by Dafydd Besent and his father. Mr Besent does the majority of the milking whilst Daydd takes care of the other duties on farm. The family invested in a milking parlour in 2015; they built it all themselves and have been milking and members of SCC since then. They have a herd of 70 cows and the working day starts at 5.30 in the morning until about 8 in the evening.
Tŷ Coch is a family farm in Llangynhafal near Denbigh. Father and son, Emyr and Iwan run the farm and have a herd of 120 grass based cows who spend most of the year out on the fields. They have been farming for about 15 years and have been members of SCC for 10 of those. They milk the cows twice a day with the first round at 6 am and the second round at 3pm. The task takes a little over an hour as 32 cows can be milked at one time. Iwan tells us that the cows like music therefore the radio is kept on in the background to soothe the cows...and the milker no doubt. They are not too keen on the 'mucking out' part of farming so it's no surprise that turning out the animals is one of their favourite job on the farm.
Elwyn Thomas a'i feibion Gareth a Huw sy'n ffermio yn Rhydorddwy Fawr ger Rhyl. Mae'r fferm yn y teulu ers 1923 ac fe wnaethant ymuno â HDA ychydig flynyddoedd yn ôl! Ceir 160 o wartheg yn y fuches ar hyn o bryd ac mae'r diwrnod gwaith yn dechrau'n gynnar iawn am 4.45 y bore. Mae'r teulu cyfan wrth eu boddau'n ffermio a ni fedrent feddwl am unrhyw dasg sy'n codi'r felan arnynt. Mae lloeau yn rhoi pleser mawr i bob un ohonynt, yn arbennig helpu'r fuwch gyda'r enedigaeth a'u magu o hynny.
Ynysgain Fawr is a family farm located only 5 miles from the Creamery. The farm has been in the family since 1943 and has been supplying the creamery since the very beginning. John and Sion run the farm today and have recently invested in a new state of the art dairy parlour cutting the milking time by 5 hours! They have a herd 120 cows, 3 generations and the majority pedigree, and have plans to increase the number and milk supply. John's favourite part of the work is breeding the cows and he names every single cow. All the cows have smart collars to let the team know of any changes in the cows to ensure that they get the best care possible. The farm is also working on becoming economically friendly and as part of this objective are collecting rain water to use to wash the dairy parlour.
Graig Arthur family farm in Trelanwyd near Rhyl is a 300 acre farm and has been producing milk for almost a century. The farm house dates back o 1776 and was one of the earliest brick built house in the area.
The family say that the last hundred years have seen many changes, but they have been supplying SCC for over twenty years now and they like that fact that SCC offers a consistent price, simple milk price schedule and makes products of very high quality.
Since 1928, the family have farmed at Ffosygrafel, Borth Aberystwyth. Today Martin, in partnership with his parents and brother, milk 90 cows and have a flock of 400 sheep. As the cows calve throught the year the Griffiths’s have continually opted for SCC’s level profile production scheme and have been succesfull in estimating their production of milk. Following extensive investment in a new building to house cows, a dairy and a parlour, the plan is to increase cow numbers by 50%. Martin said “having confidence in our milk purchaser helped when deciding to further invest in our dairy enterprise”