A DALES farming family have got inventive with their ideas for diversification and converted a horse box into a mobile milk dispensing shop.

Small-scale dairy farming brothers Ben and Adam Spence, and Ben's wife Sam, from Aysgarth in Wensleydale, are launching their new business, The Home Farmer, on Saturday.

The vending machine service is the first in the Dales – but the mobile aspect is believed to be the first in the country.

They will drive to different villages in Wensleydale every day of the week, offering self-service fresh whole milk in glass or plastic bottles.

The milk produced at the family's farm at Thorngarth Home Farm, Aysgarth, from its 80-strong grass-fed herd, is also delivered to the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes.

The Home Farmer will spend half days at Aysgarth, West Burton, Hawes and Askrigg. Customers can buy a litre for £1 in cash or as part of a loyalty scheme which offers the same quantity for 90p.

The family hope to create a market for 50 litres of milk a day and they have plans to manufacture their own farmhouse cheese as part of the enterprise.

Upon leaving school, both bothers moved away from their parents' farm, with Adam working as an architectural technologist and Ben as an accountant – but both are back working on the farm and determined to build a sustainable future for the business.

Ben said: "We started work on this parlour when we were getting just 18p a litre and people said we were mad, but that low price was exactly why we were doing it. We need to diversify and add value to our product.”

Ben said he got the idea for the mobile vending machine from the Ramsay’s fish and chip van which visits villages across Richmondshire.

Before launching the vending machine, the family built a modern new parlour and cow building at the farm, and gained financial support from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund.

The Home Farmer already has a strong following on social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram.

The machine will supply lightly pasteurised milk in either one or two litre glass bottles. The milk costs £1 per litre.

The service will be launched on Saturday from 10am until 3pm at the farm in Thoralby road, Aysgarth, DL8 3AG. Visit www.thehomefarmer.co.uk.