A FEW years ago, I wrote a feature story that has become, at least in 91av circles, the quintessential example of my role as the harbinger of doom. It was about the shocking environmental impact of cheese, especially its colossal methane and carbon hoofprint. The reactions from my colleagues were variations on “I don’t want to know”.
I am now ready to become a harbinger of good news. Earlier this month, I went to a organised by Compassion in World Farming, and others, where I met a farmer called David Finlay. He runs a creamery in Galloway, Scotland, called . I wrote about this enlightened enterprise in my earlier article, but concluded it was unlikely to make a positive impact on methane emissions as the productivity was lower than a conventional dairy. I now cheerfully recant. I can have my cheese and eat it after all.
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The distinguishing feature of The Ethical Dairy is that it is a “cow-with-calf” system. Dairy cows need to be constantly calving to produce milk. Conventional dairy farming employs a contentious procedure called calf separation, whereby calves are taken from their mothers soon after birth. The cold logic is that calves drink their mother’s milk, which significantly eats into profitability. But it comes at a terrible ethical cost, with for both cow and calf.
Cow-with-calf farming allows calves to stay with their mothers until they are weaned, which can take around 10 months on a beef farm. That is more ethical, but doesn’t seem to make economic sense for dairies, as calves drink a lot of milk. Finlay begs to differ.
Twenty-five years ago, he and his wife were running a conventional dairy farm. They later decided they wanted out of the intensive farming system and went organic. But calf separation was still an issue, so they built a new dairy in 2012, designed to house the calves with their mothers, and trialled the cow-with-calf system. Predictably, this wasn’t financially viable, as the cost of their milk was uncompetitive.
In 2016, they tried again. They gave themselves three years to either make it work or quit – and they are still in business.
How so? Finlay told me that they no longer have to buy loads of expensive fertiliser, pesticides, antibiotics and feed. The cows live out on the pasture and eat mainly grass, plus the herbs, dandelions and clover the Finlays have let take root, with only a bit of feed. Cows that suckle their calves can produce 25 per cent more milk than intensively farmed ones, partially offsetting the 40 per cent guzzled by the calves. In addition, naturally fed calves wean early, at around 6 to 8 months, at which point the females join the dairy herd. This increase in productivity and head count allows the Finlays to produce 95 per cent of the milk they used to, with much lower input costs.
There are added benefits too. The cows are happier, healthier and live longer than cows in a conventional dairy farm, which are typically slaughtered before they are 7 years old.
The soil is better, increasing its from 11 per cent to 14 per cent. The Finlays have also cut the use of artificial chemicals and antibiotics by 90 per cent, and fertilise with composted manure. Biodiversity is five times as high as it is on an average dairy farm.
Best of all, the farm is an accredited carbon sink, even accounting for the methane belched out by the cows, largely because of the increase in soil health. Dandelions, in particular, sequester a lot of carbon. And they are delicious to cows.
The milk is still a bit pricier than that from intensive farming, but not by much. And in any case, they use it all to make cheese. The Ethical Dairy produces five different cheeses, and they are delicious to humans. Not cheap, mind – a of all five costs £37. Bog-standard cheddar costs about a fifth of that. But bog-standard, the Finlays’ cheese ain’t.
However, not everything is idyllic down on the farm. Finlay has faced pushback from his suppliers, dairy farmer neighbours and even local politicians, who assumed he would reduce productivity and cut jobs (he hasn’t). Weaned male calves are sold for beef, and dairy cows at the end of their productive lives follow them to the slaughterhouse. Finlay says that if there were a local sanctuary for retired dairy cows, he would send them there. But there isn’t.
Nonetheless, The Ethical Dairy proves that cheese needn’t be an environmental and ethical disaster. I have tried to quit eating dairy, but failed. I tried plant-based alternatives, but baulked. I can now buy The Ethical Dairy’s cheese at an organic supermarket a few kilometres from my home and eat it with my head held high. My wallet will be lighter, but so will my conscience.
Graham’s week
What I’m reading
by Robert Harris, a rollocking account of the Hitler Diaries hoax.
What I’m watching
Black Ops on BBC One. Daft, dark comedy.
What I’m working on
Organising a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to visit a pioneering conservation project.
Graham Lawton is a staff writer at 91av and author of Mustn’t Grumble: The surprising science of everyday ailments. You can follow him @grahamlawton
