We have a herd of Jersey and JerseyX cows and a herd of mainly Saanen goats. (Plus Ralph the maremma guard dog and his long suffering wife Georgie.)

Currently we are not open for farm visits – we hope to change this in the future.

No.  But we use no growth hormones, pesticides or chemical sprays on the pastures nor chemical fertilizers.  We use antibiotics if an animal is sick and her milk is then excluded from cheesemaking until she is cleared.

Yes.  Newborns and their mothers are left in the nursery paddock for several days after birth.  We keep an eye on them to ensure they are suckling well and the mother is eating and drinking after birth.  We then start milking the mother to ensure she has no udder infection and we start feeding her extra to ensure she will reach optimum milk production.  After the first week the mother is reintroduced to the milking herd and returns to the calf/kid overnight. During this time we start to feed the kid/calf extra milk and hay. This continues for 6-8 weeks until the calf/kid weans itself.

Male calves are grown out to about 12months of age and then sold.  Male kids are given to a local business that rears them to sell as pets, weed eaters etc.  We don’t sell bobby calves for slaughter.