Sir: Denhay’s withdrawal from Farmhouse Cheddar making has caught the media eye (‘Denhay Farm quits Cheddar over soaring costs and price pressures’, thegrocer.co.uk).

In fact, Denhay is the fourth to go in three years and the ninth in 20 years, and that does not include Cheshire makers.

In the 1980s, the stock from Farmhouse Cheddar makers was bought by Simon Oliver of Coombe Farm Foods, later Mendip and now Dairy Crest for Cathedral City, and myself as North Downs Dairy, now Adams Foods for Pilgrims Choice.

These were days of profitable small farmhouse Cheddar makers, but they had found a new market - brands. Many went into block-formers to reduce labour, losing the open character of farmhouse and the flora and fauna found in the press room from the old uni-block system. They basically changed the taste of farmhouse Cheddar.

Some went on to make a faster maturing cheese with the sweet flavour supplied by Helveticus starter culture used in Comté and Gruyère, which is now found in all top branded Cheddar. The multiple own labels are now referring to ‘cruncher’ and ‘crunchy’.

So it is no surprise the smaller guys making less than 1,000 tonnes go under when blockformers and highly automated equipment producing 20,000 tonnes is used by the big four farmhouse/creamery cheesemakers.

David Hardisty, founder of North Downs Dairy

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