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PRIVACY
Enterprise

Day in the life: William Chesnutt, The Milk Hut

How 4.30am starts help William Chestnutt find time to take the milk from his dairy herd direct to the consumer with the help of vending machine technology

William and Alison Chestnutt who run The Milk Hut outside Portrush

Supplying direct to the consumer is the latest focus for William Chestnutt, a fourth-generation dairy farmer who works on his family farm near Portrush.

The farm has 260 dairy cows and last year added a new part to the business, The Milk Hut, which a vending machine for fresh milk and milkshakeswhich are sold directly to the public in reusable glass bottles.

It's fair to say William has a busy day...

4.30am – My alarm goes off and I have a quick coffee and head to the cow shed

5.00am – Dad and I get the milking started he’ll go and fetch the cows and clean their beds while I get on with milking

6.00am – During milking we fill the pasteuriser with milk fresh from the cows and start the process of pasteurisation

7.00am- Wash down the parlour. Open up the Milk Hut vending machine ready for those early bird customers to get their milk from 7.30am. We are in the process of increasing the size of its milk pasteuriser from 150 litres to 500 litres to cope with predicted customer demand during the summer months

7.30am – Breakfast with my son Edward and my wife Alison. We have another baby due in July so it’s good to get some quality family in before the pressures of a new baby begin. I usually make poached eggs on toast for myself and Alison and Weetabix and banana for Edward with fresh milk of course!