About us

Who we are

We are Michael and Lisa and we run a small family farm in the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire.

History

We are third generation farmers who took over the running of the family dairy farm in 2013.  The farm was a high input, high output dairy farm, milking the cows 3 times per day. By the end of 2020 we had expanded the herd to 180 cows and we were working all hours and pushing the cows to get the litres from them, but felt that the only person it was benefiting, was the supermarket who we sold our milk to. We decided there must be another way and came across regenerative agriculture.

In January 2021 we completed a 3 month course in regenerative agriculture and that was the lightbulb moment, when we realised that there was a different way of doing things, a more natural way of farming. We did lots of research about low input farming, sustainable food production and nutrition. Later that year, we visited the Ethical Dairy in Scotland who are a cow with calf dairy raising their cows on a pasture fed diet, and were very impressed with how their system worked. Seeing how happy and healthy the calves looked being raised by their mothers, we both knew that this was how we wanted to run our dairy farm.

Our cows had been bred to give lots of milk and eat lots of bought in feed which was the total opposite of what we now wanted. We wanted cows that would raise their calves and be fed a 100% pasture diet with no grains or concentrates, as milk from cows fed a 100% pasture diet has higher levels of desirable omega 3, vitamin E, antioxidants and lower levels of undesirable omega 6. We knew we had to sell all of our cows in order to make this change to a more natural way of farming, so that's what we did in December 2021.

 

What we do

We have a small herd of Jersey and Jersey cross cows, and the cows rear their own calves instead of removing them at birth like the majority of commercial dairy farms do. Our cows are milked once a day in a morning after the calves have had their share. This raw milk is then put into our on farm milk vending machine, bottled or used to make delicious artisan gelato in our processing room and sold in our gelato shop on the farm.

Our farm is also home to a small number of Oxford Sandy and Black rare breed pigs which we rear in a more natural and traditional manor than intensively farmed pigs. Our pigs live a low stress life and are able to express their natural behaviours.

We use the pigs in our rougher grassland areas to break up the vegetation with the hope of it giving more diverse flora the chance to set seed. Our pigs are keen foragers and spend most of their day eating vegetation, roots and insects. This natural foraging and plenty of space to roam creates a flavoursome meat like pork is meant to be.

Later this year, we will have the first of our 100% pasture fed beef available. The cows are all home bred and reared by us grazing our lush pastures.

 

How we do it

We believe that farming should work with nature and not against it, which is why we farm as naturally as possible. We use regenerative practices to increase soil health and build diversity to produce nutrient dense food. We do not use any artificial fertiliser or pesticides.