EXPENSIVE milk churns have been stolen from a local, environmentally-friendly farm, causing them a major financial blow.

The milk churns belonged to Bennetts Farms, based on Malvern Road in Worcester and owners are frustrated that someone has taken them as they can cost around £100 each to replace.

One of the owners of Bennetts Farms, Stefania Bennett, said: "The churns being stolen is a big blow to us as their replacement value is significant.

"For the investment to make sense, they should have been used for many years to come, rather than just several months.

"It is so frustrating that some people feel they can take what does not belong to them. They probably haven’t even thought about the effect it has on our business.

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"We deliver fresh, pasteurised milk from our own cows to our local cafe customers in stainless steel milk churns as it entirely eliminates waste from the cow to cup process – no plastic or even glass is required between our farm and our customer.

"Our customers wash the milk churns after use and return them to use, ready to be used again.

"The churns have presumably been stolen because they have a scrap metal value, rather than because they are going to be used by someone.

"Or they may be sold on – we are keeping an eye out on eBay and Facebook marketplace.

"The churns were left outside a café for us to collect when we delivered more milk in the early hours the following morning. But they had been taken at some point overnight."

The churns were taken overnight on Thursday, September 15.

Both 5-litre and 10-litre milk churns were stolen, with the 10-litre milk churns being the most expensive to replace.

Mrs Bennett added: "Cafes go through a huge amount of milk so using the milk churns allows us to store big amounts of milk and cut out plastic and wastage.

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"It's a huge investment but the idea is you get that money back over the years of using them, money you can't get back in only having them for a few months.

"We deliver milk across Worcester and Malvern six days a week and at the moment we're using buckets that we have borrowed from the ice cream factory next door but they won't last as long as milk churns do.

"The churns are nostalgic as well, people like to see their milk in them."