"If dairies had glass walls everyone would buy milk from The Calf at Foot Dairy"
a comment made by a visiting 'recovering vegan'- now a regular customer.
My Story
Fiona (The Owner) Provan, a first generation farmer, grew up with an overwhelming passion for the natural world, animals and all things wild.. She was the youngest daughter of a farm vet a hard & cantankerous Scotsman, Jim Provan had a reputation for being the best cattle vet in the district. J W Provan MRCVS was a single handed veterinary practice this meant the family were involved in the business at times being completely immersed in all things veterinary, having to be always on hand family mucking in on just about every aspect of running a veterinary business,. Fiona loved being hands on nursing sick animals day and often by night she grew up surrounded by all creatures great and small.
"As a very little girl I loved to follow the neighbours cows along the water meadows as they were moved from field to field, being milked on the pasture in a small mobile milking bale towed and powered by the old David Brown tractor. The tenant farmer's three daughters were my best friends, and these days are the only part of my childhood I can look back on with any fondness or affection. In the main, my life has been dogged with depression (circumstantial) which as a young girl wasn't acknowledged by those close to me.
I witnessed a lot of bad practice within the farming industry as I accompanied my father on his farm visits. I was drawn to and spent most of the visits with the calves in the dark sheds - each calf stuck in individual pens desperate for contact and more so for something to suck. I would go along the rows of calves offering them my hands to suck and felt they would swallow them if they could. I was too young and didn't realise the sad connection with the poor miserable looking cow stood outside in slurry on concrete with her head slung low or why that calf desperately needed to fulfill the urge to suck by sucking anything it can get it's mouth around and that sucking is the second reflex of a newborn mammal after taking it's first breath!
Dad knew where to find me and would have to drag me away from the calf sheds when it was time to move on to the next farm.
Our own neighbour the tenant dairy farmer and his family had to move off the estate when we were still fairly young and after many years we eventually lost contact with the family, those beautiful warm cows with their fragrant breath and that luscious proper milk. I then watched in horror as the big destroyers/machines of Big Ag., and mass destruction moved in, wiping nature and the wild, tranquillity and natural ecosystems with it's biodiversity of wildlife they grubbed out the trees, hedgerows and spinneys within the blink of an eye all life which had accompanied those cows was gone. The emerald green ancient and what was permanent pasture, The soils protective skin like layer had been peeled away, the turf sliced and turned over by the plough, strip by strip, exposing it's underbelly the precious topsoil teaming with more life than one could ever comprehend our soil is the foundation of life as we know it! Then the fatal blow, identically straight rows and furrows are sliced in for mono-cropping plants to supply nutritionally depleted food for the supermarkets, this soil will be eroded away until (within our lifetime) it can no longer support any life at all and to support a crop it has to be doused and drenched in poisonous petro-chemical hungry bio-cides and irrigated using precious water reserves. No more nutrient, water, carbon cycling fertile bio-diverse verdant water meadows flourishing with life, with ecosystems host and home to hundreds upon thousands of species of flora, fauna and fungi. All that's left is an empty barren prairie of bare denatured soil - dead - nothing more now than dirt it's sole purpose is as a medium to hold up the farmers crop. The killing fields of factory farmed plants this is what I call agri-genocide - this ladies and gentlemen is conventional farming for plant foods !
As I grew up I fought and spent decades of petitioning & relentlessly campaigning against the cruelty of factory farming of livestock and industrialised food production, with it's degradation of soils, destruction of ecosystems, our beautiful planet and risk to human health. The forces of mega-corporations, BigAg and pharma are huge, the fight the frustration and futile attempts at trying to make things better allowed the curse of depression take a stronger hold over me.
I was a bad girl at school (i didn't take well to authority, and to be honest still struggle with it), when I left at 15 my parents forbid me to go into farming. I was sent to secretarial college and cookery school instead, unhappily I became a chef. I soon married and had three kids very quickly. I worked in conservation and had a family smallholding with a house-cow, chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigs, horses etc but felt this was a poor attempt at making a living off the land and really just a hobby which couldn't be taken seriously. The powerful drive to set up a micro-dairy as a way of making a living broke up my marriage and I was to became a single parent when my kids were in their early teens, I went to work, study and volunteer in conservation and farming.
The rise of the mega dairy was the last straw and once my the kids were off my hands, I finally took the bull by the horns, and decided the way to go was by having a tiny perfectly formed dairy which I considered to be my first light bulb moment should be a 'micro-dairy', producing and selling Proper Milk from contented, carefree cows who lead a charmed and contented life, treated with love and respect and of course are allowed to keep their calves - in the same way we kept a 'house-cow'. The only difference is to try to make a living from selling the milk rather than it simply just being for the household . It took a while to dream up the name of my micro-dairy until I had my second light bulb moment of combining two conventionally, incompatible & contradictory terms - 'Cow with calf at foot' and 'dairy' (not seen together in the conventional farming world), I married the two together and the first ever Calf at Foot Dairy™️ was born.
"Don't be ridiculous"
After many years of hard slog, finding land to rent, criticism and being told "it can't be done", "you're mad, it's a ridiculous idea" etc my grit and determination won through. Working on a shoestring it took a while but my micro-dairy, then with just 8 cows and their calves, was finally and officially launched at The Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival September 2012. So there you have it, the original 'Calf at Foot Dairy' was official (even though everyone from the farmers to the man in the street scoffed at such a silly name)- a tiny dual purpose herd, selling Raw milk and beef from Purely Pasture Fed Jersey & native Red Poll Cows who are allowed to keep their calves! - Needless to say, my father would turn in his grave.!
I now know why it wasn't enough for me to be just a farmer or to just work in the countryside protecting wildlife - It was only about in 2009 ago I educated myself after reading a book written by Graham Harvey recommended to me by Helen (organic) Browning called 'The Carbon Fields' by Graham Harvey learning that in fact cows and healthy soils, biodiversity, of flora and fauna go hand in hand (or, hoof on turf)creating healthy foods, they even say that 'cows can save the planet'! I consider myself to be a regenerative grazier. I am simply a peasant tenant farmer, attempting to work holistically with the intention of boosting soil fertility/organic matter and ecology on the land within my care. Cows, if allowed to graze properly, have a role to play in helping to reverse climate change.
As they say in regen circles, "It's not the cow, it's the Cow", Bring back the cow!
'00000
Our cows us and now.
I never believed the cow was here to produce milk for us/people, I think it's for her calf, but every day cows in conventional systems are suffering. We are striving to make the world a better place for dairy cows our beautiful little dual purpose herd of 20 Jersey and native cows spend their days with their calves munching their way through their pasture forage diet and producing lots of nutritious, creamy RAW milk which we share once the calves have had their fill. A symbiotic relationship has evolved between us and our cows - we are they and they are us! Our cows are 99% pasture fed (the 1% is simply a few handfull of organic oats) and always allowed to roam inside and out with sunlight on their backs our cows are protected from the elements with shelter on all aspects.
Our cows all know their names and are treated as individuals and not as disposables or commodities, they come to the call and trot into the parlour one by one when their name is called., they are unrestrained during milking and are milked just once a day, allowing them the rest of the day to be cows and do cow things alongside the rest of their herd and their calves.
We are always open to the public, anyone can come along and watch us with our day to day work and of course to buy our proper milk.
Something you never used to see was a herd of milking cows alongside their calves i'm proud to say with other CAFD's setting up it's becoming popular.
0000
Depression and me
The soil our gut and brain is intrinsically linked without grazing ruminants the soil is nothing and we we are nothing, don't forget you are what you eat ate.
Suffice to say my mental health has been more on the straight and narrow since i started CAFD, It's an incredibly relentless hard slog at times, stressful, and can be downright frustrating with the fighting the 'others' but by doing and standing up for what I believe to be 'right' helps keep the depression at bay (fingers crossed). The most important thing now is to get myself amongst the right, like minded people rather than having to get up to fight every single fucking day !
0000
Credit where credit is due.
Amy and Charlie are the CAF Dairy Angels, I am not easy to work for and without them this place would not be running as it does they are the backbone of the farm.. Also to Paul our long suffering volunteer who tries to keep me on the straight and narrow when it comes to office work. And of course Our Graham also tenant farmer neighbour who helps us out with a tractor coming in everyday bringing in his home grown pasture forage.
000 000
Farm visits for wanna be CAFDers
Fiona is now available to visit you on your farm or smallholding to help you whether you just want advice for house-cow and calf welfare or to take that big step further with practical help, support, bespoke/full on consultancy with follow up mentoring to get you into micro-dairying and getting your milk to market.
email me: [email protected]
"As a very little girl I loved to follow the neighbours cows along the water meadows as they were moved from field to field, being milked on the pasture in a small mobile milking bale towed and powered by the old David Brown tractor. The tenant farmer's three daughters were my best friends, and these days are the only part of my childhood I can look back on with any fondness or affection. In the main, my life has been dogged with depression (circumstantial) which as a young girl wasn't acknowledged by those close to me.
I witnessed a lot of bad practice within the farming industry as I accompanied my father on his farm visits. I was drawn to and spent most of the visits with the calves in the dark sheds - each calf stuck in individual pens desperate for contact and more so for something to suck. I would go along the rows of calves offering them my hands to suck and felt they would swallow them if they could. I was too young and didn't realise the sad connection with the poor miserable looking cow stood outside in slurry on concrete with her head slung low or why that calf desperately needed to fulfill the urge to suck by sucking anything it can get it's mouth around and that sucking is the second reflex of a newborn mammal after taking it's first breath!
Dad knew where to find me and would have to drag me away from the calf sheds when it was time to move on to the next farm.
Our own neighbour the tenant dairy farmer and his family had to move off the estate when we were still fairly young and after many years we eventually lost contact with the family, those beautiful warm cows with their fragrant breath and that luscious proper milk. I then watched in horror as the big destroyers/machines of Big Ag., and mass destruction moved in, wiping nature and the wild, tranquillity and natural ecosystems with it's biodiversity of wildlife they grubbed out the trees, hedgerows and spinneys within the blink of an eye all life which had accompanied those cows was gone. The emerald green ancient and what was permanent pasture, The soils protective skin like layer had been peeled away, the turf sliced and turned over by the plough, strip by strip, exposing it's underbelly the precious topsoil teaming with more life than one could ever comprehend our soil is the foundation of life as we know it! Then the fatal blow, identically straight rows and furrows are sliced in for mono-cropping plants to supply nutritionally depleted food for the supermarkets, this soil will be eroded away until (within our lifetime) it can no longer support any life at all and to support a crop it has to be doused and drenched in poisonous petro-chemical hungry bio-cides and irrigated using precious water reserves. No more nutrient, water, carbon cycling fertile bio-diverse verdant water meadows flourishing with life, with ecosystems host and home to hundreds upon thousands of species of flora, fauna and fungi. All that's left is an empty barren prairie of bare denatured soil - dead - nothing more now than dirt it's sole purpose is as a medium to hold up the farmers crop. The killing fields of factory farmed plants this is what I call agri-genocide - this ladies and gentlemen is conventional farming for plant foods !
As I grew up I fought and spent decades of petitioning & relentlessly campaigning against the cruelty of factory farming of livestock and industrialised food production, with it's degradation of soils, destruction of ecosystems, our beautiful planet and risk to human health. The forces of mega-corporations, BigAg and pharma are huge, the fight the frustration and futile attempts at trying to make things better allowed the curse of depression take a stronger hold over me.
I was a bad girl at school (i didn't take well to authority, and to be honest still struggle with it), when I left at 15 my parents forbid me to go into farming. I was sent to secretarial college and cookery school instead, unhappily I became a chef. I soon married and had three kids very quickly. I worked in conservation and had a family smallholding with a house-cow, chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigs, horses etc but felt this was a poor attempt at making a living off the land and really just a hobby which couldn't be taken seriously. The powerful drive to set up a micro-dairy as a way of making a living broke up my marriage and I was to became a single parent when my kids were in their early teens, I went to work, study and volunteer in conservation and farming.
The rise of the mega dairy was the last straw and once my the kids were off my hands, I finally took the bull by the horns, and decided the way to go was by having a tiny perfectly formed dairy which I considered to be my first light bulb moment should be a 'micro-dairy', producing and selling Proper Milk from contented, carefree cows who lead a charmed and contented life, treated with love and respect and of course are allowed to keep their calves - in the same way we kept a 'house-cow'. The only difference is to try to make a living from selling the milk rather than it simply just being for the household . It took a while to dream up the name of my micro-dairy until I had my second light bulb moment of combining two conventionally, incompatible & contradictory terms - 'Cow with calf at foot' and 'dairy' (not seen together in the conventional farming world), I married the two together and the first ever Calf at Foot Dairy™️ was born.
"Don't be ridiculous"
After many years of hard slog, finding land to rent, criticism and being told "it can't be done", "you're mad, it's a ridiculous idea" etc my grit and determination won through. Working on a shoestring it took a while but my micro-dairy, then with just 8 cows and their calves, was finally and officially launched at The Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival September 2012. So there you have it, the original 'Calf at Foot Dairy' was official (even though everyone from the farmers to the man in the street scoffed at such a silly name)- a tiny dual purpose herd, selling Raw milk and beef from Purely Pasture Fed Jersey & native Red Poll Cows who are allowed to keep their calves! - Needless to say, my father would turn in his grave.!
I now know why it wasn't enough for me to be just a farmer or to just work in the countryside protecting wildlife - It was only about in 2009 ago I educated myself after reading a book written by Graham Harvey recommended to me by Helen (organic) Browning called 'The Carbon Fields' by Graham Harvey learning that in fact cows and healthy soils, biodiversity, of flora and fauna go hand in hand (or, hoof on turf)creating healthy foods, they even say that 'cows can save the planet'! I consider myself to be a regenerative grazier. I am simply a peasant tenant farmer, attempting to work holistically with the intention of boosting soil fertility/organic matter and ecology on the land within my care. Cows, if allowed to graze properly, have a role to play in helping to reverse climate change.
As they say in regen circles, "It's not the cow, it's the Cow", Bring back the cow!
'00000
Our cows us and now.
I never believed the cow was here to produce milk for us/people, I think it's for her calf, but every day cows in conventional systems are suffering. We are striving to make the world a better place for dairy cows our beautiful little dual purpose herd of 20 Jersey and native cows spend their days with their calves munching their way through their pasture forage diet and producing lots of nutritious, creamy RAW milk which we share once the calves have had their fill. A symbiotic relationship has evolved between us and our cows - we are they and they are us! Our cows are 99% pasture fed (the 1% is simply a few handfull of organic oats) and always allowed to roam inside and out with sunlight on their backs our cows are protected from the elements with shelter on all aspects.
Our cows all know their names and are treated as individuals and not as disposables or commodities, they come to the call and trot into the parlour one by one when their name is called., they are unrestrained during milking and are milked just once a day, allowing them the rest of the day to be cows and do cow things alongside the rest of their herd and their calves.
We are always open to the public, anyone can come along and watch us with our day to day work and of course to buy our proper milk.
Something you never used to see was a herd of milking cows alongside their calves i'm proud to say with other CAFD's setting up it's becoming popular.
0000
Depression and me
The soil our gut and brain is intrinsically linked without grazing ruminants the soil is nothing and we we are nothing, don't forget you are what you eat ate.
Suffice to say my mental health has been more on the straight and narrow since i started CAFD, It's an incredibly relentless hard slog at times, stressful, and can be downright frustrating with the fighting the 'others' but by doing and standing up for what I believe to be 'right' helps keep the depression at bay (fingers crossed). The most important thing now is to get myself amongst the right, like minded people rather than having to get up to fight every single fucking day !
0000
Credit where credit is due.
Amy and Charlie are the CAF Dairy Angels, I am not easy to work for and without them this place would not be running as it does they are the backbone of the farm.. Also to Paul our long suffering volunteer who tries to keep me on the straight and narrow when it comes to office work. And of course Our Graham also tenant farmer neighbour who helps us out with a tractor coming in everyday bringing in his home grown pasture forage.
000 000
Farm visits for wanna be CAFDers
Fiona is now available to visit you on your farm or smallholding to help you whether you just want advice for house-cow and calf welfare or to take that big step further with practical help, support, bespoke/full on consultancy with follow up mentoring to get you into micro-dairying and getting your milk to market.
email me: [email protected]
At The CAFD We are delighted to find there are more and more enlightened, compassionate consumers who share our desire to make the world a better place for dairy cows and happy to pay a fair and proper price for humanely produced, proper milk.
We also train and help other would be calf-at-footers set up their own Cow-Kind, Calf-friendly micro-diaries and youngsters are always welcome for training and preparation for entry into a brave new world of responsible, regenerative and ethical farming
NO SUCH THING AS CHEAP FOOD
Rather than ask why is our milk expensive,
THE QUESTION TO ASK OTHER DAIRIES IS 'WHY IS THEIR MILK CHEAP?'
Warning of bogus CAF dairies.. ....We would like to make you aware there are bogus dairies using our name to sell their products, our website has been copied and needless to say we feel sick to the core. The Calf at Foot Dairy movement is about transparency, I would advise all consumers who really care where their food comes from to turn up unannounced at the farm which sells it's produce under a high welfare banner and insist on seeing all operations have a tour and ask to see all the livestock within their care, best to go in the winter and check out the winter accommodation is the bedding fresh and clean, do the cows look comfortable and safe? If they say their cows are 100% grassfed, or claim to be chemical free then push them further on this.
Rather than ask why is our milk expensive,
THE QUESTION TO ASK OTHER DAIRIES IS 'WHY IS THEIR MILK CHEAP?'
Warning of bogus CAF dairies.. ....We would like to make you aware there are bogus dairies using our name to sell their products, our website has been copied and needless to say we feel sick to the core. The Calf at Foot Dairy movement is about transparency, I would advise all consumers who really care where their food comes from to turn up unannounced at the farm which sells it's produce under a high welfare banner and insist on seeing all operations have a tour and ask to see all the livestock within their care, best to go in the winter and check out the winter accommodation is the bedding fresh and clean, do the cows look comfortable and safe? If they say their cows are 100% grassfed, or claim to be chemical free then push them further on this.
