Milk Updates Winter 2024

Behind the scenes, and alongside the daily tasks of feeding animals, stocking shelves or making yoghurt, our team is constantly balancing meeting increasing consumer demand and maintaining financial viability all whilst protecting the integrity of our farming practices.

Something that the Covid pandemic bought into stark light was the need for agility in our work, and increasingly we are having to call on these skills to future-proof the farm against wider political, economic and environmental pressures.

There are a lot of spinning plates, but nothing will ever come before the welfare of our animals.

As the season changes, the cattle are bought into the barns and fed the hay and silage our farmers make during summer. The number of cows we milk also drops as they are rested prior to calving. As a low intensity dairy farm, we do not supplement the cows with high protein ‘cake’ when the milk yields drop, and instead focus on keeping them grass-fed. This has an inevitable effect on the amount of milk produced, which can reduce by up to two thirds during this period. All food is seasonal, and milk is no exception.

What we’re doing for our cows

Part of future-proofing the herd means adapting our practices in response to their needs.

For winter, we have adopted a ten-in-seven milking routine, meaning that for every seven days, the herd will be milked ten times, rather than fourteen. This means more rest for the cows and evens the workload for our team in the darkest months of the year, freeing time for other work central to the herd’s health. We have also been working closely with our vet, to make sure each animal is in good condition.

Over the last few years, the farm team have been implementing new grazing strategies to give our pastures suitable time to rest so the plants can lay down stronger roots, in the hopes of more resilient land and soil. A rapid movement through the fields for the animals is closer to wild grazing habits and allows our livestock access to a broader range of plants and nutrients in a shorter space of time.

What we’re doing for you, our customers

We love that so many people are wanting our products, and that more people are choosing to eat well. Making sure our customers are able to eat good food is pretty much why we all get out of bed in the morning, so in order to keep our shelves stocked and your fridges full, there are a few things we’ll be doing.

As we are fundamentally a raw milk producer, we will be bottling all the milk produced on the farm as milk or kefir, which are both raw products.

For our yoghurts (which are heated and therefore pasteurised as part of the process of making them) during the winter we will be using organic milk from local suppliers. This means you’ll still be able to get the fruit and Greek yoghurts that you know and love, made to our delicious Plaw Hatch recipes by our in-house dairy team.

For times when the milk is lower, we’ll be stocking Berkeley Farm milk, another small organic producer, in order to give you the option to spend your cash with us rather than the supermarkets. All the profits we make as a business get ploughed straight into farming, rather than any private pockets.

We’ll be expanding our range of bought in cheeses, showcasing the fine work of other artisan cheesemakers.

In spring, with the cow turn out and calving, the milk volumes will increase.