Family farms and artisan producers must be prepared to adapt if they are to survive in agriculture's constantly-shifting financial climate.

Eastern Daily Press: Dickon and Emily Lombe Taylor's Red Ruby Devon herd at Starston. Picture by Sonya Duncan.Dickon and Emily Lombe Taylor's Red Ruby Devon herd at Starston. Picture by Sonya Duncan. (Image: Archant Norfolk Photographic © 2016)

That is one of the messages from a South Norfolk couple who hope to secure the future viability of their pedigree beef business by cutting out the middle man and selling all their produce directly to the consumer.

Dickon and Emily Lombe Taylor run their company, The Beefsmith, from Starston, near Diss, with a grass-fed herd of Red Ruby Devon cattle which are locally-butchered nearby in Debenham and retailed to customers through a beef box scheme.

The venture is itself the result of a changing business landscape, as it was founded after the sale of the family's 160-strong dairy herd brought Mr Lombe Taylor back to the family farm with his wife in 2011.

And now the 30-year-old said it must evolve again to make it fully independent, without the need for support from the 520-acre arable operation run by his father Julian.

The aim is to increase the herd size and the customer base to the point where two animals are finished per month, bypassing the wholesale market in favour of retailing through the box scheme, which provides customers with quality roasting joints, steaks, mince, burgers and steaks for their freezer.

He said: 'We set it up knowing that we wanted to do this, but the animals had to come first so we did the wholesale route while we were getting our head around the beef boxes.

'We need to be adaptable and flexible. We are still a couple of years away from being self-sustaining, so we are fortunate the arable farm is there to support us.

'For me, the question is about taking that next step and spending money on sales and marketing. The customers are there. We just need to find them.

'We said by year five we want to be at 30 cows and now here we are at year four with 29. So numbers-wise we are getting there.'

Mrs Lombe Taylor, 28, said the couple spent a lot of time researching the right breed before settling on the North Devons.

'We wanted something native, which could best utilise our grassland, with the feed prices being so high,' she said. 'We wanted something very traditional, that you don't see in this part of the country. We whittled them down to something we liked the look of, and the taste of. The flavour of the Devons is superb.

'At the moment it is about four or five animals a year going through the boxes. The ultimate goal is to increase that to 24 animals a year. We still have quite a few going wholesale because we don't yet have the orders, but about 15 to 20 animals a year would see it (the business) becoming viable on its own.

'To meet today's challenges of the markets and the weather you have got to do your best to adapt as much as you can.'

Are you launching or expanding a farming venture? Contact chris.hill@archant.co.uk.