Life has changed dramatically for dairy cows over the past 50 years. Our thirst for cheap milk means we are putting farmers and cows under increasing pressure to produce more for less. Yet we waste up 490 million pints each year in the UK.
More and more cows are being herded into fewer, bigger farms, where they are pushed to produce higher yields of milk. It is not uncommon to find dairy farms running herds of up to 1,000 cows today, with an increasing number now confined indoors all year round.
Our free range dairy farmers typically run herds of 80-200 cows comprised of several generations of cow families. Unlike cows harnessed to intensive milk production, life for free range dairy cows changes with the seasons. They enjoy the freedom of the fields for at least six months of the year, day and night and are only housed when the grass stops growing in winter and fields become too wet and muddy to graze.