A race to the bottom

  Why are Britain’s supermarkets in a race to bottom right now and what will they find when they get there? I heard on the Today Programme this morning that Sainsbury’s are setting up a joint venture with Danish retailer Netto, in an attempt to take on the rapidly growing ‘discounters’. Meanwhile, Morrisons have just…

Details

Getting more from grass

Thanks to Dr George Fisher for a really interesting article in the excellent June issue of British Dairying magazine. Dr Fisher explains “We don’t tend to think of grazed grass in the same way as other feeds like silage or concentrate, where we measure the energy content to judge its quality. But, we should do,…

Details

Promar herd margins

Figures produced by James Dunn from Promar Consultancy show that headline rises in dairy herd margins are largely down to increasing milk prices over the last 12 months. In an article in Dairy Farmer magazine, Mr Dunn showed that whilst average milk yield per cow rose from 7,698 litres to 8,006 (+ 308 litres) on…

Details

Pasture Promise TV link

There is now a link on our home page to the Pasture Promise TV website. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find it under the ‘Follow Us’ section alongside the Facebook, Twitter and You Tube icons. Graham Harvey is doing some great work to promote sustainable milk and meat…

Details

SOS – Save Our Soils

“The farming lobby has wrecked efforts to defend our soil”. That was the title of a blog posted on The Guardian website by George Monbiot, last Thursday. The blog was referring to the National Farmers Union’s successful efforts to prevent the passing of an EU directive that was to set out a framework to protect…

Details

Liz Earle Wellbeing

  Interest in how the way in which dairy farmers manage their herds influences the quality of our milk continues to grow. Through her new website Liz Earle is doing a lot of work to promote healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle and Liz recognises the contribution that milk and meat from grazing herds can…

Details

The flavour of the countryside

‘The White Stuff’. That’s what one promotional campaign once called it. In recent years farmers supplying large volumes of milk for the liquid milk market have been said to be on ‘White Water Contracts’ – so called because of the low fat requirements. Is that how you regard your milk? As white water or the…

Details

Where next for Free Range Dairy?

At last week’s BBC Food & Farming Awards, food writer and radio presenter Shelia Dillon said something that I think encapsulates what Free Range Dairy is all about. She said “Our finalists represent something special – living proof that good food, tradition and taste are all worth fighting for and sharing knowledge about”. I know…

Details

Spring 2014 Newsletter

Last week the latest Free Range Dairy newsletter was circulated to around 13,000 milk producers inside British Dairying magazine. Now, it’s available here on the website for everyone to read. I hope you will see that we have lots to do in 2014 and some exciting opportunities to explore. So, if you haven’t done already,…

Details