Sark’s dairy production is nearing the end of the line as the last milking cows are moved off the island.
Tenant farmers Jason and Katherine Salisbury are due to leave Sark Dairy at the end of April and no-one has been appointed to replace them.
Sark Dairy Trust chairman Maj Christopher Beaumont said there could be an opportunity to develop a beef industry while the search for dairy farmers continued.
He said the last milking cows were being moved off the island, which meant any future farmers the trust appointed would “have to start a dairy farm from scratch”.
Maj Beaumont said: “Dairy production will stop, which is a great shame, but the herd that can stay will stay and we’ll use the herd that’s here for beef.
He said, with help from Guernsey farmers, the trust could revert to producing beef as a holding pattern until new farmers can be found to restart dairy production in Sark.
“We can try and develop relationships with Guernsey dairies because they will have spare young that they’ll need to get rid of and we could be a beef industry,” he said.
‘Love, sweat and tears’
The search for new tenant farmers began in November when the Salisburys told the trust they would return to their family farm in Suffolk after six years running Sark Dairy.
Mrs Salisbury said: “We have put a lot of love, sweat and tears into it, so it is very sad.”
Mr Salisbury added: “To get on that boat for the last time is going to be incredibly heart-wrenching.”
While they have shipped the majority of the dairy herd to Guernsey, they said they would be leaving the beef animals they had bred in Sark.
The last milk produced in Sark will go on sale on 18 April, said Mrs Salisbury.
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