Sustainable Farming – The Ethical Dairy

The Ethical Dairy 

The Ethical Dairy is the first farm in the UK to follow the calf-cow method on a commercial dairy farm. This method of sustainable farming aims to keep cows calm and confident by keeping the calves and cows together for up to 6 months and only milking the cows once a day. On most farms, calves are taken away from their mothers within hours of being born, causing huge amounts of stress to both cow and calf.

The cows show a reduction in stress, improvements in health and high levels of productivity.  

The Ethical Journey So Far 

Since October 2016 their calves have stayed with their mothers for 5 to 6 months. We still milk them in that period, but only once a day. 

They are still at the early stages of The Ethical Dairy project, and they are seeing improvements in health and productivity each year. So far the new approach to dairy farming has led to huge reductions in the use of antibiotics, increases in biodiversity and healthier, happier cows. Compared to an average dairy farm, already The Ethical Dairy has:  

• Cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half 
• Reduced energy use by more than half 
• Cut antibiotic use by 90% 
• Cut agro-chemical use by 90% 
• Doubled the productive life of cows 
• Increased our farm biodiversity five-fold 
• Increased the net amount of food in our food system by 80% 
• Exceeded the highest standards of animal welfare 
• Been a positive influence for sustainable farming

Carbon negative farm

They were delighted to publish 25 years of soil organic carbon data in early 2021 which shows that the farm is carbon negative, and in fact is sequestering substantially higher levels of carbon than commercial forestry could achieve. They were pleased to speak at a number of events, including several connected with COP26, and they were delighted to be awarded an Outstanding Achievement award at Vibes, Scotland’s Environment Business Awards in late 2021. 

The Ethical Dairy has been supported in its journey by many individuals through their crowdfunding campaign in the autumn of 2018, and by public funding, such as Dumfries and Galloway LEADER which is helping us to attend trade shows, events, and to market and promote our products. They are also grateful for support from the Food Processing, Manufacturing and Cooperation grant which has supported the development of their new cheese dairy.