But Cerys and Harry Knight are being urged not to rush into buying any cows just yet by the chairman of the trust that owns the Sark Dairy.
The pair, aged 16 and 15, set out to revive the island’s dairy after its previous tenants left the island and the herd was moved to Guernsey.
They hoped to raise £1,500 to buy one cow to get them started and set up a Justgiving page about three weeks ago.
On Tuesday morning, the amount given stood at about £700 from 16 donors, but following an article in the Guernsey Press about the siblings’ plans, dozens more people donated and as of yesterday afternoon, £4,800 had been given by 138 donors.
The family expressed their gratitude on the JustGiving page.
‘We are incredibly grateful for all the donations and messages of support,' they said.
The Knights are waiting for the island's dairy trust to confirm if their bid to take over the dairy has been successful. If not, they said they would refund every donor.
It was clear that many of the donors were from outside the Bailiwick, likely due to the Press story being picked up by farming websites in the UK – Produce and Provide, which champions British farmers and is followed by 18,000 people on Facebook, and Farming UK, which has more than 400,000 followers. Both organisations picked up the story and attracted supportive comments on their pages. Sark Dairy Trust chairman Christopher Beaumont said it was delighted at the campaign’s success.
However, he said it did not feel the siblings were ready to run the operation just yet.
The trust, which aims to save the island's dairy industry, is continuing to look for new tenants and has so far had interest from three couples, he said. One has already visited the island, with another due this week.
‘We’re delighted at the fundraising,’ he said.
‘The trust is very keen to support the Knights in their long-term ambitions to become dairy farmers, but it’s not an overnight process.’
He suggested that the money raised could be kept in the bank until a better time, or perhaps used to buy beef cattle for now.
Another issue is that the Sark Dairy does not currently have a pasteuriser, so even if milk could be produced it could not be made available for human consumption.
Guernsey Farmers’ Association president Michael Bray has offered his help to advise and mentor the young farmers, if required, and said he was pleased when he heard of their plans.
‘It’s one of those things where you are constantly learning in the job,’ he said.
‘They’ve got the enthusiasm and the will to do it, which is half the battle. They’re obviously looking to start quite small, which is probably the way to go.’
He started farming himself as a young man in Herm under the guidance of the island’s farmer, and said that by being able to help Cerys and Harry he felt he was coming full circle.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.