Cow with calf milking message taken to Europe

A DAIRY manager from the region has been in Europe spreading the word about the cow with calf method.

Charles Ellett, who works for The Ethical Dairy near Castle Douglas, is just back from the Transformdairynet Knowledge and Innovation Network even in Greece.

And he’s written about the experience, saying: “I am passionate about our cow-with-calf dairy system. But it can sometimes feel that we are battling alone in a farming industry that doesn’t support us, sees us as the crazy outsider or perhaps just as a gimmick.

“That was until I arrived in Thessaloniki, a busy city in northern Greece. It was certainly a different world from our quiet corner of Galloway. I was there to meet around 40 like-minded people, all interested in cow-with-calf dairy, and all facing the same challenges and looking for advice and support.”

He described it as ‘an international occasion’ with representatives from UK, Romania, Estonia, Italy, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands in attendance.

TranformDairyNet is a three-year EU funded project to encourage more dairy farmers to implement cow-calf contact systems.

Charles said: “I was pleased to showcase what we have achieved and also the difficult and challenging aspects of developing the system.”

And he was keen to learn from others, adding: “Case studies from individual farmers gave us an insight into some interesting farms who have been working towards a standard for other farms to follow.

“This is something I would really love to see come from the project, not just for the UK but also as a European community.

“Developing an agreed standard would be a way to provide guarantees to the consumer, a checks and balance system to ensure high standards of production, as well as the lobbying power as a group rather than an individual when stating the case to governments, and third-party distributors.”

It was also a chance for him to consider if the UK is ready for such a move, saying: “To get fresh cow-with-calf milk into supermarkets would be a big undertaking. Our farm may be a leading example of best practices in the field of ‘cow calf contact’ dairy, but it’s not at all clear whether there is an informed population willing to buy these products on a weekly basis in the UK. That consumer demand needs to be there for us to invest for the future.

“My biggest takeaway is how far we have come as a business but also how far our industry still has to go — from farmer interest in cow-calf-contact production, academic research and producing scientific evidence for the wider farming community.

“It was a truly inspiring event and, I hope, will help inspire the next wave of cow-with-calf dairy practitioners.”