A family-run dairy farm in the north of the island has outlined the difficulties it is facing after a sharp drop in milk production.

Aalin Dairy in Sulby, which began in 2013 and has won repeated Great Taste Awards for its products, issued a detailed update on social media platform Facebook following a series of cancelled and reduced deliveries.

The post explained: ‘As you know the prolonged dry spell caused an issue with grass growth, which ultimately was the catalyst for the significant drop in milk production. 40% of the herd has not recovered and will not recover until they calve again.

‘Even with housing the herd at night and starting them on their winter feed early we were only able to stabilise the yields. With cows calving it was projected to return to the required level for sales.

‘Unfortunately following calving, we have lost two of our high yielding cows. That latest being put to sleep following complications after difficult birth which required a caesarean section. This combination has resulted in an un-precented situation.’

The business at Cronk Aalin Farm added that attempts to buy replacement cows locally had failed, while imports from Britain are currently banned because of the bluetongue virus.

Importing from Ireland is being explored, but the next suitable sailing will not take place until December.

As a result, yoghurt production has stopped, and butter is also on hold. Customers have been asked to settle invoices promptly to help manage financial pressures.

The update has prompted many supportive messages.

One customer wrote: ‘Coming from a farming background I am terribly sorry to hear this news... I really hope that you can pull through this rough patch.’

Another suggested: ‘Can you do a bit of a crowd fund amongst your loyal customers… I’m sure a lot of us could to help a wonderful local business during a crushingly difficult period.’