Are you a house-cow-keeper or want to run your own
CalfAtFootDairy®️ ?
I am now offering training, remote support/mentoring & Farm visits
Calf at Foot Dairy School®️
. . . . .
I am now available to visit you on your farm or smallholding, whether you just want advice on keeping a house-cow or help with taking that step further to selling your milk. I can give you the advise and practical help you need, I offer bespoke/full on consultancy with follow up mentoring to help you set up your micro-dairy and getting your milk to market.
If you don't yet have your cow but would like to test the water you may visit me and my herd for basic cow handling/milking training taster sessions.
Or simply just phone chat with Q&A's
. . . . .
The CAFD Method, your own copy of The Gold-Top-Standard of high-welfare dairying, in a digital document - £60.oo
Calf at Foot Dairy®️ Consultancy Services Are you interested in house-cow-keeping or starting your own Calf at Foot Dairy®️? I offer tailored support, including training, mentoring, and farm visits to help you get started.
Our Packages
T&Cs
Payments are requested to be made within 7 days on receipt of the invoice. A late payment fee will be charged unless agreed differently by prior arrangement.
If you feel it's urgent you can try me now
Not sure if it's an Emergency? Please call your vet ! !
Tel: 07787 103 508
. . . . . .
Why I want to help
Why?...... To keep The High Welfare Dairying (CAFD) movement moving forward,
because I have given everything I had and more to the cause - the welfare of dairy cows & their calves - I'll be damned if I'm going to let it get bolloxed by the ruthless green/welfare-washers, Big dairy & vegans alike for all their different reasons, that's why!!!
.....Having retired from selling milk I just milk a house-cow for home consumption and tend to my own little herd of cows and calves, I've been working on the next chapter in The CAFD story, which is to help others who either keep house-cows to milk for their own consumption or cow-keepers who want to set up their own CAFDs to sell their dairy produce. Which means that during this winter I have spent as much time working remotely on a laptop and phone helping others as I have with a pitchfork in my hand.
Now as the days draw out, the grass starts to grow, it'll soon be possible for me to leave my cows for the odd day or so to get out and about to visit these cow-keepers on their farms and smallholdings, to give some practical help, up until now I have been doing this FOC but the time has come where quite simply I need to start charging for my time as much as I don't want to I'm afraid I have to.
This is such hard, challenging work I know and for all it's rewards it can be pure gruel and drudgery, there are gonna be times you need help physically and emotionally, but before you start to feel completely overwhelmed where better to find help than from the person who bore and developed the method which became a movement because, not only do I feel somewhat responsible for you your cows and the cause but I have the empirical knowledge which needs sharing which I do with empathy.
If you are looking for advice and support or even some practical help with your
house-cow / Calf at Foot Dairy but getting in a muddle or even just have the odd question to ask then i'm here to help. I am now available no matter how trivial it may seem (it's not to me) to ask a professional or if it's something you feel may be urgent but not sure whether or not to call the vet out, I can advise I try always to be on the other end of the phone.
My real expertise is Calf at Foot Dairying and the special three-way relationship we have with the cow and her calf, the problem with this old house-cow-keeping method being a more natural method of dairying is that conventional dairy farmers and vets are not in-tune with what we are trying to achieve and asking them for advice can really throw us off course. I can hand on heart say that whatever your question / problem there's a bloody good chance I have been there myself and eventually had to find the answer through making far too many mistakes, which cost me dearly in thousands of £££'s and of thousands of hours of time. I have seen lots of people setting up but finding it all too overwhelming and now i'm not milking myself I should be able to get to you before you get to the stage of wanting to give up your cows.
Rest assured If ever I feel we need a second opinion whether it's cow health or milk testing I will signpost you to a specialist/professional in that field.
It is really important to me now that I have retired to help keep the movement of house-cow-keepers / CAFD wannabes moving forward producing healthy wholesome foods for their own communities whilst taking the best possible care of their animals and the local environment.
If you are new to cow-keeping below is a taster of how we will start your journey into house-cow keeping / Calf at Foot Dairying
. . . . .
Consultancy/our first job, lets find you the right cow/s
The first job for me as your house-cow/CAFD advisor is to ensure you as a new cow-keeper choose the right cow/s for you and your situation. We need to find the right cow/s to suit each you as an individual and your context ie the amount of space available to keep your cows safe, healthy and content which means we look at both your family and work commitements andthe topoghrapy of where you are, that being the pasture, shelter available and any infrastructure which will either restrict you to keeping a house-cow for your own dairy consumption or if there is a potential to going on to sell your milk as a CAFD from your premises.
I can help keep you on track and help you avoid an implulse purchase (because you have fallen in love with the wrong cow for you) by prioritising the most important characteristics in a cow which suit you whether it be the cows nature, breed, hardiness/a good doer, high/low yielder, whether an older more experienced/school mistress, forgiving cow would be more suitable if you haven't previously kept or milked a cow, she will give you the confidence you need while you learn the ropes rather than a feisty young heifer who has never seen the inside of a milking parlour which may well put you off and also we need to know the reason for her sale, which is difficult for a novice to find out.
New arrival
Before your cow arrives, you may find you'd like guidance with the basic legislation and paperwork of keeping cows eg how to register your holding with the right authority by applying for a CPH(holding number) and a your herd mark.
I can help you with the logistics of getting your cow home and settled in safely
Lets take just one step at a time
For the sake of our own health the health of our cows at the beginning of your cow keeping journey, do please try to avoid being a purist or a perfectionist it's important for us to try to be pragmatic and avoid having to do everything which we consider to be the best of the best, until you are fully confident you know your animals, your and their capability and the land which you are working with. Because over the years something I have come across is that like me people who want to dairy sympathetically for the cows and the land also tend to want to be both certified as Organic and Pasture For Life. I would strongly suggest that at the beginning we need to keep things simple for the sake of your own sanity and your the cows well-being which means you need to firstly get to know your cow and her characteristics and how robust she is metabolically, you won't know this until you have wintered and summered her at least twice, had at least one calf with her and a full lactation milking her as a house-cow before you even consider progressing from being a house-cow-keeper to a dairy selling milk.
I was selling my milk at £4.00per litre after I had dropped being certified Organic and Pasture For Life, that proved simply too much for me to cope with, my customers trust me, I'm overly honest and transparent to my own detriment at times and yeah sure there were some who wanted to see a certificate before buying but then again there were plenty of others to take their place. When I gave up milking I had 2,000 on the CAFD waiting list. I just needed the freedom to feed the odd struggling cow what we would call the 'forbidden fruits' if she was struggling because of being overbred, which I have now addressed - in those days I was such a pedant, so bloody minded I stupidly stuck at trying to be everything to everybody for too long and we all suffered.
We can work with organic and PFL principles, just not rush into certification, I can guarantee you will tie yourself up in knots, certification of any kind is something to look at once enough knowledge is gained through hands-on experience in cow handling and farming. It's important that we are transparent because farmers need to regain public confidence. We need to always remember that "no-one can be everything to everybody", we must take a holistic approach to consider the cows well-being, her physical and emotional needs, your needs, the land, your families needs and any other commitments you may have. By trying to be everything to everybody such as Organic, PFL, CAFD before you,your farm and herd are ready you may well push yourself, your animals, your business over the edge and be looking at early burn out - so give yourself a break by not aiming to do everything all at once.
We can work on the certification of your choice once the basics of cow and calf care have become plain sailing
. . . . . . .
Take note
N.B #1 Sometimes I may say 'cow' but I am strongly against anyone having a single cow on her own even if she has a calf at foot. Cows are herd animals and must have at least one other adult cow companion at all times"
N.B #2 Calf at Foot®️ is protected by trademark and may not be used to promote your farm/dairy or to sell your produce unless you have my permission (Fiona Provan) in writing ! This includes using the hashtag #calfatfoot on social media. Of course The term 'cow with a calf at foot' is still used as it always has been used when selling a cow with her calf at foot - describing the status or condition of a cow eg at point of sale of said cow/s (the definition being that she is being sold with a dependant calf), another example would be 'cow in calf' or in calf heifers' I hope this explains but if still unclear, If you'd like me to explain further please don't hesitate to call me. I would also be happy to visit you and would be more than delighted to approve more dairies as CAFD's, the standards are strict but they really do have to be due to a few unscrupulous individuals.
. . . . . .
How to pay
. . . . . .
Please pay by bank transfer to:
F A Provan
Account: 1 1 1 1 37 1 1 Sort: 089300 ref:
(I will give you a reference before making a payment)
. . . . . .Calf at Foot Dairy®️ Consultancy ServicesAre you interested in house-cow-keeping or starting your own Calf at Foot Dairy®️? I offer tailored support, including training, mentoring, and farm visits to help you get started.
Our Packages
. . . . .
I am now available to visit you on your farm or smallholding, whether you just want advice on keeping a house-cow or help with taking that step further to selling your milk. I can give you the advise and practical help you need, I offer bespoke/full on consultancy with follow up mentoring to help you set up your micro-dairy and getting your milk to market.
If you don't yet have your cow but would like to test the water you may visit me and my herd for basic cow handling/milking training taster sessions.
Or simply just phone chat with Q&A's
. . . . .
The CAFD Method, your own copy of The Gold-Top-Standard of high-welfare dairying, in a digital document - £60.oo
Calf at Foot Dairy®️ Consultancy Services Are you interested in house-cow-keeping or starting your own Calf at Foot Dairy®️? I offer tailored support, including training, mentoring, and farm visits to help you get started.
Our Packages
- Consultancy & Farm Visits
- Hands-on help at your farm: £70/hour + travel costs
- Bespoke support to set up your micro-dairy and get your milk to market.
- Taster Training Sessions
- Visit our farm, meet the herd, and learn the basics of cow handling and milking. Ideal for complete beginners.
- Half-day (up to 3 people): £150
- Full day: £300
- Phone Support & Advice
- Phone consultations: £1/minute (Follow-up notes via email if requested: £15)
- Ideal for emergencies, advice, or Q&A sessions.
- Bespoke 'Hand-Holding' Packages
- Personalised support for beginners, especially during calving and milking.
- Tailored pricing based on needs and scope of support.
- Standing Order Option
- Unlimited phone and text support for £10/week. Use as little or as much of my time as you need for a fixed rate. Permanant reassurance for those that might be on the start of their journey.
- Contact Me:
- Phone/WhatsApp: 07787 103 508
- Email: [email protected]
- All payments should be made via bank transfer. Details provided upon booking.
- Cow Welfare: Always keep at least two adult cows together.
- Trademark Use: "Calf at Foot®️" is a protected trademark, it is illegal to use the term to promote your business to sell goods or services! However, the term can still be used in the context of describing the condition of a cow eg 'cow with a calf at foot' for sale. Contact us if you wish to seek approval for permission to use the term.
T&Cs
Payments are requested to be made within 7 days on receipt of the invoice. A late payment fee will be charged unless agreed differently by prior arrangement.
If you feel it's urgent you can try me now
Not sure if it's an Emergency? Please call your vet ! !
Tel: 07787 103 508
. . . . . .
Why I want to help
Why?...... To keep The High Welfare Dairying (CAFD) movement moving forward,
because I have given everything I had and more to the cause - the welfare of dairy cows & their calves - I'll be damned if I'm going to let it get bolloxed by the ruthless green/welfare-washers, Big dairy & vegans alike for all their different reasons, that's why!!!
.....Having retired from selling milk I just milk a house-cow for home consumption and tend to my own little herd of cows and calves, I've been working on the next chapter in The CAFD story, which is to help others who either keep house-cows to milk for their own consumption or cow-keepers who want to set up their own CAFDs to sell their dairy produce. Which means that during this winter I have spent as much time working remotely on a laptop and phone helping others as I have with a pitchfork in my hand.
Now as the days draw out, the grass starts to grow, it'll soon be possible for me to leave my cows for the odd day or so to get out and about to visit these cow-keepers on their farms and smallholdings, to give some practical help, up until now I have been doing this FOC but the time has come where quite simply I need to start charging for my time as much as I don't want to I'm afraid I have to.
This is such hard, challenging work I know and for all it's rewards it can be pure gruel and drudgery, there are gonna be times you need help physically and emotionally, but before you start to feel completely overwhelmed where better to find help than from the person who bore and developed the method which became a movement because, not only do I feel somewhat responsible for you your cows and the cause but I have the empirical knowledge which needs sharing which I do with empathy.
If you are looking for advice and support or even some practical help with your
house-cow / Calf at Foot Dairy but getting in a muddle or even just have the odd question to ask then i'm here to help. I am now available no matter how trivial it may seem (it's not to me) to ask a professional or if it's something you feel may be urgent but not sure whether or not to call the vet out, I can advise I try always to be on the other end of the phone.
My real expertise is Calf at Foot Dairying and the special three-way relationship we have with the cow and her calf, the problem with this old house-cow-keeping method being a more natural method of dairying is that conventional dairy farmers and vets are not in-tune with what we are trying to achieve and asking them for advice can really throw us off course. I can hand on heart say that whatever your question / problem there's a bloody good chance I have been there myself and eventually had to find the answer through making far too many mistakes, which cost me dearly in thousands of £££'s and of thousands of hours of time. I have seen lots of people setting up but finding it all too overwhelming and now i'm not milking myself I should be able to get to you before you get to the stage of wanting to give up your cows.
Rest assured If ever I feel we need a second opinion whether it's cow health or milk testing I will signpost you to a specialist/professional in that field.
It is really important to me now that I have retired to help keep the movement of house-cow-keepers / CAFD wannabes moving forward producing healthy wholesome foods for their own communities whilst taking the best possible care of their animals and the local environment.
If you are new to cow-keeping below is a taster of how we will start your journey into house-cow keeping / Calf at Foot Dairying
. . . . .
Consultancy/our first job, lets find you the right cow/s
The first job for me as your house-cow/CAFD advisor is to ensure you as a new cow-keeper choose the right cow/s for you and your situation. We need to find the right cow/s to suit each you as an individual and your context ie the amount of space available to keep your cows safe, healthy and content which means we look at both your family and work commitements andthe topoghrapy of where you are, that being the pasture, shelter available and any infrastructure which will either restrict you to keeping a house-cow for your own dairy consumption or if there is a potential to going on to sell your milk as a CAFD from your premises.
I can help keep you on track and help you avoid an implulse purchase (because you have fallen in love with the wrong cow for you) by prioritising the most important characteristics in a cow which suit you whether it be the cows nature, breed, hardiness/a good doer, high/low yielder, whether an older more experienced/school mistress, forgiving cow would be more suitable if you haven't previously kept or milked a cow, she will give you the confidence you need while you learn the ropes rather than a feisty young heifer who has never seen the inside of a milking parlour which may well put you off and also we need to know the reason for her sale, which is difficult for a novice to find out.
New arrival
Before your cow arrives, you may find you'd like guidance with the basic legislation and paperwork of keeping cows eg how to register your holding with the right authority by applying for a CPH(holding number) and a your herd mark.
I can help you with the logistics of getting your cow home and settled in safely
Lets take just one step at a time
For the sake of our own health the health of our cows at the beginning of your cow keeping journey, do please try to avoid being a purist or a perfectionist it's important for us to try to be pragmatic and avoid having to do everything which we consider to be the best of the best, until you are fully confident you know your animals, your and their capability and the land which you are working with. Because over the years something I have come across is that like me people who want to dairy sympathetically for the cows and the land also tend to want to be both certified as Organic and Pasture For Life. I would strongly suggest that at the beginning we need to keep things simple for the sake of your own sanity and your the cows well-being which means you need to firstly get to know your cow and her characteristics and how robust she is metabolically, you won't know this until you have wintered and summered her at least twice, had at least one calf with her and a full lactation milking her as a house-cow before you even consider progressing from being a house-cow-keeper to a dairy selling milk.
I was selling my milk at £4.00per litre after I had dropped being certified Organic and Pasture For Life, that proved simply too much for me to cope with, my customers trust me, I'm overly honest and transparent to my own detriment at times and yeah sure there were some who wanted to see a certificate before buying but then again there were plenty of others to take their place. When I gave up milking I had 2,000 on the CAFD waiting list. I just needed the freedom to feed the odd struggling cow what we would call the 'forbidden fruits' if she was struggling because of being overbred, which I have now addressed - in those days I was such a pedant, so bloody minded I stupidly stuck at trying to be everything to everybody for too long and we all suffered.
We can work with organic and PFL principles, just not rush into certification, I can guarantee you will tie yourself up in knots, certification of any kind is something to look at once enough knowledge is gained through hands-on experience in cow handling and farming. It's important that we are transparent because farmers need to regain public confidence. We need to always remember that "no-one can be everything to everybody", we must take a holistic approach to consider the cows well-being, her physical and emotional needs, your needs, the land, your families needs and any other commitments you may have. By trying to be everything to everybody such as Organic, PFL, CAFD before you,your farm and herd are ready you may well push yourself, your animals, your business over the edge and be looking at early burn out - so give yourself a break by not aiming to do everything all at once.
We can work on the certification of your choice once the basics of cow and calf care have become plain sailing
. . . . . . .
Take note
N.B #1 Sometimes I may say 'cow' but I am strongly against anyone having a single cow on her own even if she has a calf at foot. Cows are herd animals and must have at least one other adult cow companion at all times"
N.B #2 Calf at Foot®️ is protected by trademark and may not be used to promote your farm/dairy or to sell your produce unless you have my permission (Fiona Provan) in writing ! This includes using the hashtag #calfatfoot on social media. Of course The term 'cow with a calf at foot' is still used as it always has been used when selling a cow with her calf at foot - describing the status or condition of a cow eg at point of sale of said cow/s (the definition being that she is being sold with a dependant calf), another example would be 'cow in calf' or in calf heifers' I hope this explains but if still unclear, If you'd like me to explain further please don't hesitate to call me. I would also be happy to visit you and would be more than delighted to approve more dairies as CAFD's, the standards are strict but they really do have to be due to a few unscrupulous individuals.
. . . . . .
How to pay
. . . . . .
Please pay by bank transfer to:
F A Provan
Account: 1 1 1 1 37 1 1 Sort: 089300 ref:
(I will give you a reference before making a payment)
. . . . . .Calf at Foot Dairy®️ Consultancy ServicesAre you interested in house-cow-keeping or starting your own Calf at Foot Dairy®️? I offer tailored support, including training, mentoring, and farm visits to help you get started.
Our Packages
(7) Some Testimonials
. . . . . .
" As a first-time farmer and first-time cow owner I need of a lot of guidance. I don’t think I would be feeling nearly as calm as I do one year on without the help of Fiona Provan. Fiona is always at the end of the phone either on text or for long calls. Her advice is straightforward no nonsense on so many crucial topics from questions around mastitis and weaning to visits to the abattoir and she can also give very practical and technical support when the milking machine has suddenly given up. Fiona has the necessary knowledge but even more than that, she understands the needs of both the cow and the farmer, and it is this balance I now know we must always be striving for. In the heat of the moment, she knows the way to ease tensions, calm nerves and advise me with the clearest guidance. Once, there was a minor crisis when the calf escaped overnight. I called Fiona and she made sure I was doing all I could to find the calf but also kept me calm and reassured it would all be alright. It was. The beliefs and methods which are set out in Fiona’s Calf at Foot system come from her wide experience, her deep knowledge and an unwavering integrity. This means that the CaF ways can be adapted to so many different dairy situations while keeping the health and safety of the cows at the heart of the system. I feel incredibly lucky that I am able to lean on Fiona at this stage in my journey into dairying, both for me and for my cows. I hope she will always be there because I would be quite lost without her. "
- Clementine Macmillan-Scott, Stonehouse Farm Sussex
February 6th 2024
- Clementine Macmillan-Scott, Stonehouse Farm Sussex
February 6th 2024
" I first contacted Fiona for advice when my cow was 3 months before her due date with her first calf. This was also my first calf. I have just two cows and want to keep them as house cows and with the calf at foot, so I knew Fiona was the person to help. She came for an initial visit to meet us all and was extremely helpful offering practical advice in every area. She was particularly helpful when it came to helping me with my training to get the cows in a halter and to teach them their names. She gave me step by step and clear advice on what I needed to work on to build my relationship with my cow ready for milking. She also gave me advice about my facilities and how I could get them best set up. She gave me a thorough report after our first session and kept in regular contact to make sure I was getting on ok. She was on hand on the phone for many moments of crisis, such as during the difficult birth and the first few weeks of milking. She always replied quickly and was really helpful, non judgmental and clear. She was supportive and encouraging. She also came to visit me again just after the calf was born to check in on us, help with some practical aspects such as tagging the calf and also with the milking aspect which we were struggling with. I would never have succeeded so well with achieving this dream to milk my own cow and have managed it in such a positive way for my cow and calf, without the help of Fiona. Even when I thought I knew what I was doing, I didn't! but she just continued to help with her straight talking and realms of knowledge and got on with just giving me the help I needed to do the best for my cows. I would thoroughly recommend her as an advisor in all things cow and calf. "
- Barbara Haddrill, Ceffylau Gwaith Carnog Working Horses
Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant
Powys
- Barbara Haddrill, Ceffylau Gwaith Carnog Working Horses
Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant
Powys
" Fiona really helped me with every aspect of starting my cow-calf dairy. It felt like a big jump from house cow to starting as a business & she talked me through everything from milk testing requirements, to raw milk safety, to different parlour set ups. She was a listening ear when things felt difficult (more than once!) and her experience and expertise is unmatched.
Highly recommended "
- Phylidia Warmington, Cothelstone Micro-Dairy Somerset
@cothelstone_micro_dairy
Fiona Provan : Calf at Foot Dairy, by Rob Elliott, 2013
"There are so many praiseworthy aspects to the work that has been done by Fiona in connection with Calf at Foot Dairy that it is difficult to know where to start. But let’s start with the name. Evocative of a time before industrialised dairy production, it tells you much of what you need to know about this little dairy and its herd. It tells you that the person who runs the dairy cares for her animals and their welfare. The clear message in the phrase ‘calf at foot’ is that the calving cows in this herd can keep their calves until weaned – a far cry from what happens to the mercilessly exploited Holstein milk machines that feed the insatiable profit-driven industrial dairy industry. That is not to say, however, that the Calf at Foot Dairy is an exercise in nostalgia or the outcome of a sentimentalised attitude to farming. Though it may seem like the epitome of hobby farming to run a herd of less than ten cows, it is nothing less than the future of farming, a microcosm of the way in which we will need to produce our food in the future, if we are to redress the harm we have done to ourselves, our agricultural land and the ecologies that connect us to that land. Through the scorched earth of a planet brought to the edge of collapse by the insanity of industrialising our food supply, we see the tiny green shoots of change. Fiona, her beautiful Jerseys and the dairy that supplies their milk are part of that necessary change. Yes, but what use is a micro dairy, we might ask? How is that going to feed the world? The answer is that this tiny dairy is a living example of how the ‘world’ will eventually be allowed to feed itself, once all its peoples have reclaimed their right to their own food sovereignty. Over the last hundred years or so, those most keenly interested in the profits to be made from the control of our food supply have purloined the means of production. Wresting it from the hands of thriving rural communities, they forced the rural dispossessed in every country on Earth to seek work in burgeoning cities, decimating the communities that once supported not only those who lived the rural life but also the city dwellers that depended on them. The result is a global food supply system dominated by a handful of predatory trans-national corporations that put profit before all else, destroying the fertility of the land, poisoning it with unwanted chemicals, killing millions of small creatures along the way and filling retail warehouses with degraded factory-produced food that is very bad for us and dangerously bad for the planet, in more ways than it is possible to discuss here. By comparison, what Fiona is doing at the Calf at Foot Dairy is more than simply the exact opposite of this. It is taking everything farmers used to know innately about good husbandry, adding the lessons learnt from the bad farming practices that have defined the last half a century, thinking with the
heart as well as the head and putting before us a small (but perfectly formed) example of how farming should be done. In defining what she does, Fiona uses the word ‘compassion.’ Some might argue that there is no room for compassion in farming but, quite simply, they are wrong. Though compassion so often takes a back seat in this egotistical age, it is vital as a fundamental idea, not just in farming, but in how we define ourselves in the greater context of life on this planet. Compassion is what will bring us back to our senses. At the Calf at Foot Dairy, Fiona’s compassion shows us a way to treat animals with respect, to nurture them and to care for the grassland that supports them. The natural source of food for these herbivores results in a natural, nutrient dense food that has helped to sustain our own species for millennia. Milk in this pure natural form is the only kind of milk that ever sustained us, and the only kind that will sustain us today. Commodity milk, that bland, thin, pasteurised, homogenised, standardised apology for real food is, frankly, worthless – as we are now seeing through the increasing numbers of people who have become ‘dairy intolerant.’ As soon as we start to meddle with natural processes, in this case by feeding cows on grain, heat-treating the milk and removing from it the vital nutritional core – the cream – we are creating another non-food. Fiona is doing the opposite. Fiona is producing a nutritionally vibrant real food that is so full of vitality that it has traditionally been used as a natural medicine. She is doing this whilst putting the welfare of her cows before anything else. Part of that welfare is allowing them the luxury of eating what nature intended – rich pasture. In doing that, she is helping the planet too, because pastureland is a wonderfully effective means of capturing carbon. By contrast, growing grain to feed to cattle is an equally effective way of contributing to our carbon emissions. Fiona’s way of farming requires no chemical fertilisers, pesticides or other poisonous chemicals. Industrial farming pours millions of tonnes of these harmful substances into the ground every year, causing damage that is studiously ignored by governments, the corporate lobby and the mainstream media. We need people like Fiona to show us there is an alternative. She may be running only a micro dairy, but she is flying a very big flag alongside others like her who have the courage to actually do something. Unbeknown to the man in the street, our industrial food system, committed to the most part to the growing of cash crops for the global market, is stretched to breaking point – something else you won’t see in the media or on the Government’s agenda. Just the total dependency of this system on the continuing supply of cheap fossil fuels puts it in jeopardy of predictable collapse within a few decades. The likely model to take the place of this global behemoth is a worldwide localised economy, particularly a localised food economy based on the idea of small-scale mixed farming.
Fiona and her Calf at Foot Dairy are in the vanguard of this change, and it is imperative that we encourage, nurture and protect her efforts to provide high quality nutritious food to her local communities. As the future unfolds, we will need more Fionas, not fewer. Although there is no way to predict accurately when the industrial food system will eventually unravel, we can say with some certainty that it is a truly unsustainable model of food production, and so its eventual demise is guaranteed, one way or another. Does it not make sense to anticipate this inevitability by thinking of ways of securing our own local food sovereignty? To invest in Fiona and the Calf at Foot Dairy is to invest in something priceless. Small is beautiful, as E F Schumacher pointed out exactly 40 years ago, and the world’s leading thinkers are now finally catching up with that idea. Small is also profitable, in that it can generate a comfortable living and a debt-free life for someone who understands the meaning of the word ‘enough.’ Small is self-contained, local, friendly, community conscious and environmentally sustainable. In Fiona’s case, this is not simply a nebulous concept – she is proving that it can work. Fiona is the future, and we will all need brave people like her to specialise in the production of nutritious food as a thriving part of our future localised economies".
Highly recommended "
- Phylidia Warmington, Cothelstone Micro-Dairy Somerset
@cothelstone_micro_dairy
Fiona Provan : Calf at Foot Dairy, by Rob Elliott, 2013
"There are so many praiseworthy aspects to the work that has been done by Fiona in connection with Calf at Foot Dairy that it is difficult to know where to start. But let’s start with the name. Evocative of a time before industrialised dairy production, it tells you much of what you need to know about this little dairy and its herd. It tells you that the person who runs the dairy cares for her animals and their welfare. The clear message in the phrase ‘calf at foot’ is that the calving cows in this herd can keep their calves until weaned – a far cry from what happens to the mercilessly exploited Holstein milk machines that feed the insatiable profit-driven industrial dairy industry. That is not to say, however, that the Calf at Foot Dairy is an exercise in nostalgia or the outcome of a sentimentalised attitude to farming. Though it may seem like the epitome of hobby farming to run a herd of less than ten cows, it is nothing less than the future of farming, a microcosm of the way in which we will need to produce our food in the future, if we are to redress the harm we have done to ourselves, our agricultural land and the ecologies that connect us to that land. Through the scorched earth of a planet brought to the edge of collapse by the insanity of industrialising our food supply, we see the tiny green shoots of change. Fiona, her beautiful Jerseys and the dairy that supplies their milk are part of that necessary change. Yes, but what use is a micro dairy, we might ask? How is that going to feed the world? The answer is that this tiny dairy is a living example of how the ‘world’ will eventually be allowed to feed itself, once all its peoples have reclaimed their right to their own food sovereignty. Over the last hundred years or so, those most keenly interested in the profits to be made from the control of our food supply have purloined the means of production. Wresting it from the hands of thriving rural communities, they forced the rural dispossessed in every country on Earth to seek work in burgeoning cities, decimating the communities that once supported not only those who lived the rural life but also the city dwellers that depended on them. The result is a global food supply system dominated by a handful of predatory trans-national corporations that put profit before all else, destroying the fertility of the land, poisoning it with unwanted chemicals, killing millions of small creatures along the way and filling retail warehouses with degraded factory-produced food that is very bad for us and dangerously bad for the planet, in more ways than it is possible to discuss here. By comparison, what Fiona is doing at the Calf at Foot Dairy is more than simply the exact opposite of this. It is taking everything farmers used to know innately about good husbandry, adding the lessons learnt from the bad farming practices that have defined the last half a century, thinking with the
heart as well as the head and putting before us a small (but perfectly formed) example of how farming should be done. In defining what she does, Fiona uses the word ‘compassion.’ Some might argue that there is no room for compassion in farming but, quite simply, they are wrong. Though compassion so often takes a back seat in this egotistical age, it is vital as a fundamental idea, not just in farming, but in how we define ourselves in the greater context of life on this planet. Compassion is what will bring us back to our senses. At the Calf at Foot Dairy, Fiona’s compassion shows us a way to treat animals with respect, to nurture them and to care for the grassland that supports them. The natural source of food for these herbivores results in a natural, nutrient dense food that has helped to sustain our own species for millennia. Milk in this pure natural form is the only kind of milk that ever sustained us, and the only kind that will sustain us today. Commodity milk, that bland, thin, pasteurised, homogenised, standardised apology for real food is, frankly, worthless – as we are now seeing through the increasing numbers of people who have become ‘dairy intolerant.’ As soon as we start to meddle with natural processes, in this case by feeding cows on grain, heat-treating the milk and removing from it the vital nutritional core – the cream – we are creating another non-food. Fiona is doing the opposite. Fiona is producing a nutritionally vibrant real food that is so full of vitality that it has traditionally been used as a natural medicine. She is doing this whilst putting the welfare of her cows before anything else. Part of that welfare is allowing them the luxury of eating what nature intended – rich pasture. In doing that, she is helping the planet too, because pastureland is a wonderfully effective means of capturing carbon. By contrast, growing grain to feed to cattle is an equally effective way of contributing to our carbon emissions. Fiona’s way of farming requires no chemical fertilisers, pesticides or other poisonous chemicals. Industrial farming pours millions of tonnes of these harmful substances into the ground every year, causing damage that is studiously ignored by governments, the corporate lobby and the mainstream media. We need people like Fiona to show us there is an alternative. She may be running only a micro dairy, but she is flying a very big flag alongside others like her who have the courage to actually do something. Unbeknown to the man in the street, our industrial food system, committed to the most part to the growing of cash crops for the global market, is stretched to breaking point – something else you won’t see in the media or on the Government’s agenda. Just the total dependency of this system on the continuing supply of cheap fossil fuels puts it in jeopardy of predictable collapse within a few decades. The likely model to take the place of this global behemoth is a worldwide localised economy, particularly a localised food economy based on the idea of small-scale mixed farming.
Fiona and her Calf at Foot Dairy are in the vanguard of this change, and it is imperative that we encourage, nurture and protect her efforts to provide high quality nutritious food to her local communities. As the future unfolds, we will need more Fionas, not fewer. Although there is no way to predict accurately when the industrial food system will eventually unravel, we can say with some certainty that it is a truly unsustainable model of food production, and so its eventual demise is guaranteed, one way or another. Does it not make sense to anticipate this inevitability by thinking of ways of securing our own local food sovereignty? To invest in Fiona and the Calf at Foot Dairy is to invest in something priceless. Small is beautiful, as E F Schumacher pointed out exactly 40 years ago, and the world’s leading thinkers are now finally catching up with that idea. Small is also profitable, in that it can generate a comfortable living and a debt-free life for someone who understands the meaning of the word ‘enough.’ Small is self-contained, local, friendly, community conscious and environmentally sustainable. In Fiona’s case, this is not simply a nebulous concept – she is proving that it can work. Fiona is the future, and we will all need brave people like her to specialise in the production of nutritious food as a thriving part of our future localised economies".
