As World Milk Day celebrations get under way, I thought you might be interested in a few milk stats, to impress anyone you are having round for a few pints of the white stuff. There’s an awful lot of milk produced and consumed around the globe. Between 2013 and 2015 world milk production stood at…
We are delighted to announce that from today, Asda are extending the offer of Free Range Dairy Farmers milk to more stores, following a positive reaction from customers who have been campaigning for the milk to be available in their area. Asda launched Free Range Dairy Farmer’s Milk in to 109 stores in March this…
I was delighted to receive the award for Outstanding Contribution to Farming at the 2017 Western Daily Press Food & Farming Awards, which were held on Tuesday evening (9th May). It was a great pleasure to get to shake the hand of Gloucester and England rugby legend Phil Vickery upon receiving my award too. I…
There hasn’t been much in the news lately about cuts in milk prices or the blockading of supermarket distribution centres by angry farmers. That’s because over the last six months there has been a steady rise in farm gate prices, following a significant drop in production on farms. Total UK milk production was 770 million…
Well. It seems that the milk revolution that we have ignited is rapidly spreading, with more and more people beginning to understand that not all milk is the same. Every week there is news and debate about free range milk that seems to be driving a retailers and dairy companies to hurriedly piece together some…
We are absolutely delighted to have received so much interest in Pasture Promise free range milk, following our recent appearance on Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast . People everywhere, are demanding to know that the milk they buy comes from cows free to graze in fields, for at least 180 days and nights a…
If you were one of the many people watching Jamie & Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast on Channel 4, last Friday, you would have seen the feature on free range milk and the Pasture Promise logo. We are so grateful to Jamie and Jimmy for taking up our cause as a ‘Food Fight’ and helping us…
I’ve been lucky, very lucky. I have lived in some beautiful parts of the English countryside, worked with some inspiring people and had the privilege of enjoying a close relationship with nature all of my life. There are few jobs that can give one the sense of connection to the world around us like dairy…
Tuesday 7th March 2017, Stafford Beacon Conference Centre, Stafford ST18 0GB The value in traditional, pasture-based dairy farms that produce great tasting milk and enrich our countryside, is being lost as the pressure to deliver large volumes of cheap, commodity milk steers more producers towards an intensive regime. Those running family farms, where cows enjoy…
2016 has been a really busy year for Free Range Dairy Network. Having established a collaboration between dairy farmers supplying milk to Dales Dairies and Stephenson’s Dairy in Lancashire, the first free range milk reached the market in May 2015. Since then we have been working to grow our network and offer more people the…
When I began talking about the concept of free range milk back in 2011, I was looking for a way to help people understand the role dairy farmers play in defining the quality of the milk we buy and to halt the loss of traditional grazing herds from the British countryside. I could see that…
It’s that time of year when we can feel the world around us changing, as suddenly summer seems to have slipped away. Shortening daylight, colder mornings, mist and dew, accompanied by a rich hue of orange and gold colours splashed across the once green landscape, announce the arrival of autumn. Still today, in mid October,…
The recently released State of Nature Report with contributions from more than 50 conservation groups, claims ‘policy-driven’ intensification of farming is a significant driver of nature loss in the UK. The report assessed 8,000 species and found that one in ten are threatened with extinction. In a report by BBC Environmental Correspondent, Claire Marshall, lead author of…
The first Countryfile Live event took place at Blenheim Palace from the 4th to the 7th August this year and joined free range milk suppliers, Cotteswold Dairy, on their stand for a couple of days. In recent years, some have been critical of BBC Countryfile for its lack of coverage of British food and farming, but…
It is quite likely that, in the wake of the work we have done to promote traditional, seasonally grazed dairy farms and the wonderful milk they produce, others will begin to label milk as ‘free range’, reassuring consumers that cows have “access to grazing” for much of the year. However, in many instances, this may…
TV chef and good food ambassador, Jamie Oliver, has established an ambitious new initiative to bring about a global revolution in food and we have been invited to join in and tell the world about the work of the Free Range Dairy Network CIC and its aims. You can read the full details on Jamie’s…
July 1st 2016 marks the second birthday of the Free Range Dairy Network. Our ‘birth certificate’ below from Companies House shows the date we created our Community Interest Company (CIC) and embarked on our stated social mission “to promote the value of pasture-based milk production on British dairy farms for the benefit of cows, consumers…
It is unsurprising, in the wake of the work we have done to raise awareness that not all milk is the same, others are now looking to establish labels providing an assurance that dairy cows are grazed in fields. Waitrose launched a new TV advert in April, shortly after I appeared on BBC Countryfile talking…
The sight of 1,700 cows on one farm, as part of a feature on milk and dairy farming systems that I took part in, on last week’s BBC Countryfile caused an unprecedented reaction. Social media was alive with comment and debate, much of it expressing shock and horror at the scale of a farming operation producing…
Whilst hundreds of farmers gather in London on Wednesday March 23rd, to protest at further milk price cuts, the dairy cows belonging to the Hobbs family at Barhouse Farm in a small village, near Gloucester, will be turned out to grass for the summer months ahead, quite possibly for the last time. We want…