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Left to right - Bob Ellis, Rex Davey, Frank Goldsmith - Technical Director Alfa - Laval Agri (Retired)
Farm/dairy name: Tresillian Barton
Owners: DairyLand Farm World / Rex Davey
No of Dairy cows: 120
Breed of cows: British Friesian
Housing: Cubical buildings
Milking system: DeLaval 18 point rotary herringbone
Number of milkings per day: Two
“Our philosophy has always been to encourage visitors to the farm and promote a better understanding between town and country. As farmers we have a commitment to produce food of the highest quality and to look after our environment. I hope the visit to DairyLand will help you to understand more about life in the countryside and farming methods of yesterday and today”
Rex Davey
In 1924 Mr Frederick Davey MBE started a farming business at Tresillian Barton and in 1936 started a long tradition of association with Alfa Laval by purchasing a state of the art bucket milking system. In 1944 he saw the latest “combine recorder” parlour and was one of the first, if not the first, to install a system.
By the 1950’s his two sons had a thriving business which they called F Davey & Sons. One side of the business was a farm machinery dealership run by Mr Rex Davey and the other a successful dairy farm run by Mr Frank Davey OBE.
In 1973 a young Alfa-Laval Agri salesman, Bob Ellis, visited the farm and negotiations started for the latest state of the art rotary milking parlour. Bob’s layout design provided a perfect setting for the public to view the milking process. After a visit to America by Rex Davey, where he visited a similar parlour open to the public, the decision was made to start the link between town and country for which DairyLand is so well known. The farm became one of the first to open its doors to the public in the UK. On August 2nd 1975 DairyLand was opened complete with the latest in rotary milking parlours.
This year DairyLand is 30 years old and DeLaval celebrates a 69 year business association with the Davey family. Contrary to our competitor’s belief that they pioneered the rotary parlour in 1985, the DairyLand DeLaval rotary has been milking twice a day for the last thirty years achieving over 2 million cow milkings, and still going strong.
DairyLand General Manager, Brian Anderson, said “When you do the sums it’s amazing. I think we have had one change of support rail and rebuilt a few rollers in all this time. It certainly was a brilliant investment”
DairyLand plays host to over 100,000 visitors per year and “Clarabelle’s Orbiter”, the name of the DeLaval rotary, is a major attraction. Farm Manager Neil Fabris says “Its particularly good to see the younger visitors who marvel at the way the cows like to “go for a ride” whilst being milked and the milk chasing through the glass recorder jars and pipes. The machine is so well built it never lets them or us down”.
The site has a farm museum with an excellent dairy section and many general farm exhibits which are all very well displayed. The live section allows the visitors to go “close up” to all the animals you would find on a normal UK farm and some you don’t (Yaks, Ostrich etc.!)
DairyLand is one of the premier farm tourists attractions in the UK and has won many awards including National Farm Attraction of the Year, British Tourist Authority ‘Come to Britain’ award, Bayer/FWAG Farm Trail Competition Winner and the NFU Mutual Marketing Award.
Mr Rex Davey is now 87. At 57 he and his brother Frank (now deceased) invested a large amount of money in the DairyLand project because they believed in communicating a strong positive message to their ultimate customers. DeLaval is very proud of its 69 year association with DairyLand Farm World and all dairy farmers who want to see a strong positive UK Dairy industry.
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