When I was getting a few jobs done on the farm early yesterday morning, before heading off for our Free Range Dairy meeting, I was heartened to hear BBC Radio 4 discussing opportunities to engage consumers and secure a fair price for milk, which reinforced my belief that we are on the right track.
You can listen to yesterday’s episode of Farming Today if you click here.
At yesterday’s meeting we talked about how we plan to win recognition for a clearly defined way of producing milk and sign up milk producers to farm their cows in accordance with Free Range Dairy standards. This will allow farmers (and processors) to use our Pasture Promise label and demonstrate a clear commitment to grazing their cows.
I am grateful to all those who came along to the meeting yesterday and contributed so much towards developing our ideas and growing the Free Range Dairy Network. We are now reaching a point where we have a clearly laid out proposal for farmers. So, we are putting together a programme of regional meetings that will enable farmers around the country to find out more about what Free Range Dairy can offer them. These meetings will take place between mid November and the end of January. A full list of dates and venues will be published on the website soon.
In the meantime, please get in touch if you would like to know more about the work we are doing and to find out how you can get involved in making a real difference to the future of UK dairy.