THE WORM THAT TURNED...
A North Devon dairy farmer has taken up the Government's challenge to diversify - by swapping his herd of cows for...worms.

Tony Allin, from Bucks Cross near Bideford, "grows" half a tonne of worms a week and is now the biggest worm producer in England.

Mr Allin runs what is effectively an indoor worm factory. In each worm tray, there are at least 12,000 worms. Outside, there are five acres of worm beds being farmed.

Tony Allin switched to worms after getting fed-up with the fall in the price of milk

There are advantages to switching to worms. For a start, there is no need to get up at the crack of dawn to milk the stock - a good dose of worm grub once a fortnight is all that is needed.

Mr Allin gave up half of his dairy herd a year ago, after getting fed up with dropping milk prices.

He explained: "I went to an open day for worm diversification and thought it was very impressive. Of all the diversifications I've seen, this came top of the list."

The worms are used for organic digestion. A tonne of worms can digest a tonne of green waste in just 24hrs.

The worms are moved indoors to be fattened up

"It's not easy - it's quite hard work, said Mr Allin. "You do need the right equipment, but it will be quite profitable in the future."

After several months in their worm beds, the wriggly creatures are moved indoors where they are fattened up.

They are then separated from the dirt and sold for £7-a-kilo to Organic Waste Management. The firm buys up more than 250 tonnes of worms a year and puts them out to work on waste sites across the country.

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