Our cows and calves live together as one herd, all day, every day.
We use only the milk not wanted by the calves to craft award winning dairy at our family farm.
Better Together; Sharing Dairy
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Jess's Ladies Sharing Dairy
All Together
In our ‘Sharing Dairy’ system, our ladies and calves live and grow up as one herd, all together, all day, every day. Everyone comes in for milking time together, when we milk the excess milk the calves do not want from our ladies, before they all return to pasture. This way we ‘share’ the milk produced, and the calves get priority.
We then turn this fresh organic milk into our multi-award-winning unhomogenised Kefir, Milk, Cream, Cultured Buttermilk and Yoghurt in our own dairy on-site at our farm, ready for delivery to farm shops, restaurants, delis, schools, businesses and the farmers’ markets we attend each week.
Relaxed Schedule
As part of Jess's Ladies' ‘Sharing Dairy’ system, our herd is milked 11 times each week, with a mixture of twice-daily and once-daily milking. This more relaxed approach has been developed to take pressure off our ladies and ourselves, while allowing us to continue evolving our farming approach and effective use of resources, whilst still producing the finest Jess's Ladies Organic dairy produce.
It is going exceptionally well, and bringing the ladies and calves in together for milking makes us smile every day. Watching them grow up together as one herd, living together all day, every day, is a huge privilege. By the time they are of weaning age, they are very much more cows than calves, on an adult diet they have chosen to embrace, and I’m confident they have had the very best start in life.
Jess's Ladies Milking
The Ladies and their calves live together, all day, every day
Sharing Dairy system
This ‘Sharing Dairy’ system, where calves are left with their herd 24 hours a day and a new relaxed milking pattern is adopted, has come about after the pooling of a lifetime of knowledge and observation. Snippets from other fabulous dairies in the UK, combined with a lifetime of working alongside our ladies to meet their needs, set against the backdrop of today’s challenges, environmental responsibilities and consumer demands, have all featured.
Our ‘Sharing Dairy’ approach sees inherent benefits for farmers’ health and mental wellbeing, as well as a more relaxed approach for our animals. The UK has the most incredible hard-working dairy farmers, with the highest standards in the world, but we must never stand still. We must continue to evolve for the good of ourselves, our animals and our farmland.
Balance is everything
Balance and ‘sharing’ are important in every aspect, and we all have a duty. For so long as humans eat meat and dairy produce, we have a duty as farmers to ensure every day of those animals’ lives in our care is the best it can possibly be.
Consumers have a responsibility to purchase and source the best they can, to make the most informed choices about their food and how it is produced, and to support a food source they believe in with their purchases.
Every penny spent on food is a vote for the farming system it comes from. Cast your vote wisely.
Cows and Calves at Jess's Ladies Farm
