A FARM in the countryside near Salisbury has been producing some of the country's best-rated cheese.

Lyburn Cheese started in 1969 from a farm in Landford but now has 170 cows that make 80-90 tonnes of cheese per year. 

Its products have won numerous awards - and are served in some of the top restaurants in the country.

In fact, the handmade cheese has built up such a reputation that it is shipped all over the worth, to countries such as the USA and Australia. 

The business is run by Mike Smales. The 73-year-old first got into the trade through his father, a farmer, and after running his own farm for decades he saw his cheesemaking business taking off.

Salisbury Journal:

His cheese business has grown so much that he has taken it on full-time, while his son Jono has taken over the farm.

He said: "We haven't really stopped. Our product is top end and that's what sets us apart." 

Mike was exhibiting his produce at the Local Produce Trade Show run by Business South, at the Ageas Bowl last week. 

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The business makes a variety of different handmade cheeses, available from a number of stockists, its own farm shop and online.

Locals can't get enough of the cheese, Mike says, with 150 shops within a 50-mile radius of the farm stocking it. 

And it's not just retail, they also supply some of the top names in the hospitality industry directly, with its products being served in places such as luxury hotels Lime Wood, and The Pig Hotels, Chewton Glen, the Jetty in Southampton and further afield in the Black Swan in Yorkshire and L'Enclume in the Lake District, plus many more. 

Mike said that the most popular cheese is the Old Winchester, which is similar to a  gouda with a distinctive nuttiness in flavour, which makes up for half of his business.

The rest of his cheeses, although they are pressed, are not that close to cheddar cheese. They are, in general, a softer and a more continental type of cheese.

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The business has faced increased pressure with costs rising, particularly the large rise in the price of fertiliser in the past year. 

Mike said they were forced to put prices up by six per cent recently, reluctantly. 

He said: "It should have gone up a lot more than that, the price of fertiliser has gone up more than double. It's been tough. There have big some big cost rises out there but we are managing to absorb some of it." 

Despite this, there are no signs of the business slowing down, and Mike hopes to one day hand over the reins to his granddaughter Julia, who is currently studying agriculture at Sparsholt College. 

Go to lyburnfarm.co.uk/contact