A huge thank you to all those who returned survey forms or completed them online – a total of nearly 600 in all. We are overwhelmed by the response, particularly the number who have provided contact details and expressed an interest in hearing more about Free Range Dairy or attending a regional meeting. Although the survey has now officially closed, if you still have a survey form sitting on the kitchen table or if you want to complete the survey online, your responses will still be counted.
We are now busy logging all of your answers and comments onto a database and will shortly be sharing the results. It is likely to be early March before we finally have all this together. We are currently putting together the first Free Range Dairy newsletter, which will be distributed with the farming press and available to download from the website. This will provide some details of planned activities for 2012 and a list of the winners of the Amazon vouchers awarded to those returning the first surveys.
In the meantime, we are looking for case studies of farmers who are committed to grazing their cows and would like to gain recognition for free range milk production. Please let us know if you would like us to put something about you and your herd on the website. If we are to make a real difference to the lives of farmers and their cows, we need advocates who are willing to spread the word about the benefits of pasture-based milk production. Speak up now – together we can make a difference!