Our changing landscape

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…

The milk revolution has started

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…

Not All Milk is the Same

Free Range Dairy Network has been using the #notallmilkisthesame for a few months now and as we raise awareness of the work of Free Range Dairy Network, the clearer it becomes that indeed not all milk is the same. Within our farmers network we have farmers located from the Yorkshire Dales down to Cornwall, with…

Free Range Dairy Review of 2016

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…

A Harvest Festival for Dairy

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,…

Putting nature back into milk

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…

Last of the Summer Milk

This week we ran our last Free Range Dairy event of the summer at Bar house farm in Gloucestershire. Jenni and Jerry along with their cows have been the stars of the events. Jenni making free range cakes and everything in between for lunches that people couldn’t resist after a walk around the farm, pictures…

Happy Birthday to Us!

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…

One year on

One year on for Stephenson’s Dairy and Free Range Dairy … I was at Cup North, part of Spin Manchester, this weekend helping Chris of Stephenson’s Dairy with his milk stand. Chris was also providing all the Free Range milk for the coffee roasters J Atkinson & Co. Ltd, Casa Expresso and Ancoats Coffee Co,…

Should we stay or should we go?

As the big question looms over whether we stay or leave the EU, we’re hearing about immigration, the NHS and cost to UK households but just as important but not getting the column inches in the media is food and farming. Understandably people are concerned about housing, education, jobs and health but for real unrest…

The White Elephant of Dairy

In the UK we’ve got used to having what seems like a limitless choice when it comes to our food purchases. In the supermarkets chiller section, we see row upon row of milk that’s standard, organic, semi, skimmed and whole fat. We buy 80% of our milk in one of the main major supermarkets and…

Full Facts Milk

World Animal Protection are asking people to sign their Full Fact Milk pledge and join them in calling for clear milk labelling and ask supermarkets and shops to put Free Range Milk on shelves. If you click here you can find out more about their campaign and watch their video, which features some of our Free…