Makers of Hafod Cheddar.  Hafod is handmade in small quantities using unpasteurised milk from the small herd of Ayrshire cows on their farm.
Their recipe is inspired by cheesemaking techniques of a hundred years ago.
Havod cheese begins with a relationship between land and herd with around 75 cows in milk at any one time, the size of the herd is shaped by what the land can sustain.
It’s an organic farm managed without chemical fertilisers or pesticides, fertility is built through crop rotations and grazing encouraging biodiversity and balance ecology.
About half of the land is permanent pasture, harnessing biodiversity and giving the cows a whole food diet.
The cows at the heart of the farm are generations of mothers and daughters going back to the foundation of the herd.
The size of the herd ensures interconnectedness, within our cow community.
The calving dilemma of cow / calf separation is one that is addressed by the farmer.
“On our farm, at calving the calf will either be an Ayrshire heifer, a beef cross or an Ayrshire male, depending on the bull or semen used at service. All calves will stay with their mother for the first few days in order to get the colostrum and maternal care needed during those first days.
Sometimes we have to separate sooner and feed the colostrum by bottle if the calf has not got the hang of suckling or if the cow does not allow it to.
Once the calf is strong enough we aim to suckle all Ayrshire heifer calves until weening at twelve weeks, they will eventually join the milking herd. This may be will their mother or in groups of two with a foster mother, who will have enough milk for both of them.
They will be cared for as a small group and the suckler cow will come in before milking to suckle them.
This becomes a routine that cows and suckler cows all understand very quickly and the calves thrive.
It also ensures that there is bonding between cow and calves, but also between the calves in the suckling group. Friendships that endure beyond weening and into adulthood“