Milk, cheese, butter, yoghurt and cream all form a central part of many shopping baskets, but how much do we know about where it all comes from?
Dairy is a complicated industry where there is huge disparity between best practice and general practice. From calves, to diet, to outdoor access, there’s a lot for the consumer to get their head around.
Grass or grain?
Cows are ruminant animals, designed to consume pasture and forage crops, but it’s common to feed grain to cows to increase production. There is growing evidence that the dairy produced by cows fed on a 100% pasture diet has lower levels of saturated fat, higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, and a greater amount of vitamins and minerals than grain-fed dairy.
“It’s good for the animals’ health and welfare – they will be expressing their natural behaviours and eating a diet more appropriate to their digestive system, when compared to eating starchy foods that can cause acidification of their rumens,” explains Jimmy Woodrow, Executive Director of Pasture for Life.
A matter of methane
The methane emissions of cows is a hot topic, with both dairy and meat animals contributing to the climate impact of methane. This is seen by many as an attempt at trying to mitigate one single, problematic part of the industrial food system whilst ignoring the wider need for a move to an agroecological and regenerative farming system.
Bill Gates has invested in Rumin8, an Australian start up that produce supplements to reduce the amount of methane produced by cows. It has also just been announced that a number of farmers producing milk for Arla will utilise a supplement called Bovaer that claims to reduce emissions by 27 per cent with the resulting milk being sold in a number of supermarkets across the UK. This has resulted in outcry across social media, with people concerned about the potential and as yet unknown longterm side effects of the supplement.
What breed?
If you ask someone to picture a dairy cow, the chances are they picture a black and white Holstein Friesian. This breed has become the favoured dairy animal because of its high milk yield – up to 60 litres a day – but some small producers are moving towards breeds such as Jersey or Guernsey cows. The milk not only has a higher butterfat content, but is also known as A2 milk (due to the presence of A2 beta-casein proteins), and research has shown it can be easier to digest, especially for people who are sensitive to dairy.
The issue of calves
In order to lactate, cows must give birth. A cow will produce a high volume of milk for around 10 months after giving birth to a calf, meaning many dairy operations will breed their dairy cows every year in order to maximise the milk yield and minimise the time for which the cow is ‘dry’ (not producing milk). The calves are often separated from their mothers almost immediately, and the female calves are kept as herd replacements or sold on to be raised as dairy cows. Male calves though pose a conundrum, with most being raised for veal, but around 95,000 a year are still shot.
There is a growing number of ‘cow and calf’ operations, where the calf is kept with the cow for a much longer period – usually around six months – before weaning. During this time, the calves are normally separated overnight from around three months old to allow some milk to be taken, and to prepare them for weaning.
Rebecca Mayhew from Old Hall Dairy has kept the cows with the calves on her farm since their first calf was born eight years ago. “I decided from the beginning that I didn’t want to separate our cows and their calves – as well as bottle feeding being nutritionally inadequate for the calf it would have created a lot of additional work for us which seemed counterintuitive.” She’s found the cows and calves are happier, healthier and the calves have a better growth rate.
You can see a list of cow and calf dairies selling milk, butter, cheese and more on the Cow-Calf Dairies website.
Ahimsa Dairy have also gone one step further and have become a slaughter-free dairy. This means that as well as keeping calves with the mothers, no calves, cows or bulls are slaughtered in the operation. To manage their herd, cows are not put in calf as often, bulls are used to work the land with ploughs and other tools, and older cows are retired to graze when their productivity drops. The lower productivity of the model is reflected in the cost of the milk (£4.50 a litre from the farmers market, or £3.50 for members). This is currently the only slaughter-free farm in the UK and while they sell at the Queens Park London Farmers’ market, their waiting list for online orders is currently closed.
Sheep, goats and even buffalo
Goats milk, cheese and butter is becoming more commonly available, and can often be found in larger supermarkets. It is harder to find sheep and buffalo products, but they can be sourced online or direct from farms. Preference for goat, sheep and buffalo milk often lies with consumers finding it more digestible than cow’s milk, though some prefer the taste. However, the same issues apply as within the cow dairy industry, including the issue of what happens to male kids in goat dairies.
Certification
There are a few key labels to be aware of when buying milk and other dairy products. The first is the Red Tractor label (which 95 per cent of British milk reaches the standard of). This label means very little above the legal minimum in terms of animal welfare, with Red Tractor farms still allowed to remove calves shortly after birth, shoot male calves and keep the dairy cows indoors year round.
Within Organic certification, there are several different marks that have varying standards. The Soil Association mark has the strictest requirements, including keeping calves with their mothers until 12 weeks old, GM-free feed and animals being kept outdoors when the weather permits. They must also receive a minimum of 60 per cent of their diet from forage.
The highest standard is the Pasture for Life logo, though it’s currently only available from a small number of places. Their accreditation means the animals are fed 100 per cent pasture (no grain), calves must stay with their mothers until 12 weeks, and calves are not permitted to be slaughtered (except on extenuating health grounds). The benefits go beyond this though; “Dairy farmers who aren’t using feed inputs – like cereals, soy or other by products – are going to have to be farming in harmony with nature,” Jimmy Woodrow explains. “For example, the number of animals they stock will have to be relative to the amount of land they have, leading to a more circular, regenerative system.”
There is a rise in milk labelled as coming from regenerative farms. While the shift to more regenerative agriculture is incredibly positive, and one of the strengths is that it refers to a direction of travel for farmers who are trying to farm in a more sustainable way, the challenge comes from the lack of legal definition around the term. When buying milk labelled as regeneratively produced, there is no minimum animal welfare or environmental standards behind it, so it’s important to not make assumptions and do proper research into how it’s produced.
Milk treatment
Pasteurisation is the term that describes milk that has been heated to a certain temperature (71.7 degrees Celsius) for a sufficient amount of time to kill harmful microorganisms. Most milk sold in the UK (and anything you will find in a supermarket or retail space) is pasteurised. In England and Wales, it is possible to buy unpasteurised, or raw milk, but only direct from the farm (it is illegal in Scotland). Farms selling raw milk are subject to stringent testing by the Food Standards Agency and are also expected to test regularly themselves.
Many people who cannot digest pasteurised milk find the enzymes present in raw milk help with digestion. “We began selling our raw milk in 2012 when the commodity market price of milk was slipping below what it cost us to produce it and we realised that we’re making an amazing and nutritious raw product, from happy, free-ranging cows who graze on diverse permanent pastures and we could be selling this direct to people who will really appreciate it and enjoy it,” Dulcie Crickmore from Fen Farm Dairy explains.
You can buy raw milk from the farm gate, farmers markets or online direct from farms. It is also possible to buy unpasteurised butter (often called cultured butter), cream and cheese too.
Whole milk is also often a misleading label. In most whole milk sold by larger companies, the cream is separated from the milk, and the legal minimum (3.6 per cent) added back in again (the rest of the cream is skimmed off to be sold separately, and make more profit). Buying direct from smaller farms you may find the milk is sold with the amount of the cream naturally produced by the cow, which may vary season to season (we advise enquiring as to how their whole milk is processed, before buying).
Where to buy
You may remember a time when the milkman left bottles on the doorstep each morning, but today most people buy their milk from the supermarket.
While some supermarkets offer organic milk and dairy, there is little traceability or provenance with regards which farms this comes from, with most sourced through multinational companies like Arla or Muller. While the animal welfare is better than non-organic milk, it’s preferable where possible to buy from a farm or intermediary who are transparent about their supply chain.
The most high profile organic dairy brand is Yeo Valley, but in 2018 the milk, butter and cheese production was bought by Arla, a huge dairy business that scored just 18 out of 100 on Ethical Consumer’s corporate profile. It’s worth considering the wider business behind the produce you buy, although the yoghurt, cream and ice-cream are still owned by the Yeo Valley family.
Many veg box schemes now offer dairy from local farms as an add on, and independent grocery shops often stock locally sourced milk, butter, cream and cheese – though it is worth doing your own research about the produce they stock. There are also a number of farms who offer online delivery across the UK, which can be helpful if you’re looking for something specific such as jersey milk, raw milk, or cow and calf dairy produce.
There’s been a rise in farms installing milk vending machines on their farms, providing a lower cost and plastic-free, direct sale opportunity. Fen Farm Dairy has a milk vending machine and also sell their cheese, butter and other produce through a self-service machine. “The self-service model is great for customers as it’s open from 5am until 8pm every day,” points out Dulcie. “It also works well for farmers and has been adopted widely on farms across the UK, as it allows farmers to earn a valuable farm-gate income stream without the need to employ additional full-time staff.” There is no online listing of vending machine locations, so it’s worth doing an internet search to see if there’s one near you.
This is the first in our new WL Sustainable Food Series, by Steph Wetherell, which will include guides on fruit, veg, meat, eggs and much more, over the coming weeks.
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