Robert with David at Finlay’s Farm
Finlay’s Farm
Dairy farm that doesn’t separate calves from their mothers.
Producers of traditional cheeses made with organic milk from they’re own dairy herd, where the calves are kept with their mothers to suckle. Rainton Farm is the first commercial dairy in the UK to be following the cow with calf method, demonstrating that cow with calf dairy farming is viable and sustainable at scale. The ethical dairy model is based around treating the animals, the land, the environment and the people who work there with respect and kindness. Thank you for supporting this radical new approach to dairy farming.
Since October 2016 the calves have stayed with their mothers for 5 to 6 months. They are still milked in that period, but only once a day.
It is still at the early stages of The Ethical Dairy project, and there are improvements in health and productivity each year. So far the new approach to dairy farming has led to reductions in the use of antibiotics, increases in biodiversity and healthier, happier cows. Compared to an average dairy farm, the data and feedback from industry experts suggests The Ethical Dairy has:
- Cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half
- Reduced energy use by more than half
- Cut antibiotic use by 90%
- Cut agro-chemical use by 90%
- Doubled the productive life of cows
- Increased our farm biodiversity five-fold
- Increased the net amount of food in our food system by 80%
We were delighted to publish 25 years of soil organic carbon data in early 2021 which suggested that our farm is carbon negative, and in fact is sequestering substantially higher levels of carbon than commercial forestry could achieve. We have since taken part in detailed carbon auditing and our ‘net zero’ status has been independently verified. We were pleased to speak at a number of events, including several connected with COP26, and we were delighted to be awarded an Outstanding Achievement award at Vibes, Scotland’s Environment Business Awards in late 2021.
Academic and industry interest in cow-with-calf dairy farming is growing. David Finlay, our farmer, and Charles Ellett, our Dairy Manager, both participate in a new EU funded project called Transform Dairy, which seeks to encourage more farmers to adopt cow-with-calf dairy systems. Our farm hosts visits from academics and industry groups from around the world. David also leads farm tours for members of the public who are interested in our approach.
The Ethical Dairy has been supported in its journey by many individuals through our crowdfunding campaign in the autumn of 2018, and by public funding, such as Dumfries and Galloway LEADER which helped us to attend trade shows, events, and to market and promote our products from 2018-2020. We are also grateful for support from the Food Processing, Manufacturing and Cooperation grant which has supported the development of our new cheese dairy.
We hope you enjoy our cheese and we thank you for your support of The Ethical Dairy.