Dairying to be different: The organic farmers who did it their whey

In January they sold the Cream O’Galloway visitor attraction and ice cream business to Yorkshire-based company Brymor. The couple wanted to solely concentrate their energy on their Ethical Dairy brand, which uses milk from their cow-with-calf dairy to make a range of artisan cheeses.

It was back in 2007 when David and Wilma first realised they wanted to take their business in a new direction. Wilma says: “I think it was David who was the first to say, ‘We’re making an unsustainable product.’ Once you accept that oil is a finite resource how can you justify, either financially or socially, using fossil fuels to make ice cream? The process involves buying ingredients from all around the world. We then heat those ingredients up, cool the mixture down, freeze it, and then hold it in cold stores, refrigerated vehicles, shops and home freezers. We also quickly agreed that the product we should be focusing on for the future should be cheese.”

Wilma explains: “Back in David’s father’s days, the farm had made 15 tonnes of cheese a year until production stopped in 1971. The milk was taken straight from the cow to the cheese vat without being pasteurised. Once the cheese was made, it was stored in ambient conditions without refrigeration. There was very little energy used – apart from lots of physical energy – so surely, we could do the same again?”

It took time to raise over a million pounds to invest in upgrading the cow shed and milking parlour as well as converting a derelict building into a cheese-making dairy. At the same time, they decided they should introduce cow-with-calf dairy farming. Their goal was to put an end to the standard industry practice of removing dairy calves from their mothers soon after birth, which members of the public increasingly questioned on their farm tours.

In 2012 their first attempt failed after five months. After the painful decision to stop was made David says: “A weight lifted off my shoulders as my heart broke. The cows were stressed even though they had their calves, they didn’t want to go into the parlour and the calves drank almost all the milk.” This failure pushed the couple to the brink emotionally and financially. So, after making considerable changes, they tried again in 2016, embarking on a three year pilot.

This time they succeeded despite numerous setbacks, publicly committing to the cow-with-calf dairy permanently in 2019. Now the calves stay with their mothers until they are five or six months old. They have a special calf-friendly area that the cows cannot access, and from around two to three months the calves stay overnight in this calf bedroom and they then rejoin their mothers in the morning after milking.

David says: “The cows love this system, and the guys like working here because they just feel good about it.” Standing watching a shed filled with cows and calves contently interacting, David gestures and says: “That’s our marketing department.”

The herd are cross-bred Montbéliarde, Holstein and Viking Red cows. He explains: “We selectively breed big confident cows that are doing well in this system. We breed them for temperament; if a cow is stressed, she won’t give us milk. It is as simple as that.”

In 2018 Wilma and David launched The Ethical Dairy brand which nailed their colours to the mast. The milk they produce is sold to make the same award-winning ice cream and to provide raw milk to make Ethical Dairy’s range of cheeses. Cheesemakers on-site make Finlay's original Cheddar, Carrick, Laganory, Rainton Tomme, Garnie, Fleet Valley Blue, Barlocco Blue, Skinny Gold and Skinny Red and a limited-edition Bluebell cheese.

The stone barn where they make cheese was derelict, but today visitors can peer in through viewing windows watching the entire process. The herd’s unpasteurised milk is brought directly from the milking parlour in a mini tanker which is then pumped into the cheese-making room when it is still warm. It is then turned into cheese, by the careful addition of starter culture and rennet.

Now as well as selling cheese to wholesalers, they have loyal customers who buy directly online. You can take a farm tour to witness for yourself cow-with-calf dairying in action, or book on to a day-long cheesemaking course run by Jayne Herron, the farm's Sales and Marketing Assistant. Herron is originally from Bedford and moved to the South of Scotland in 2010. The cheesemaking course is very relaxed and on it, you will learn how to make two kinds of cheese: ricotta and hard cheese. The hard cheese needs to be matured at home for two months before being sampled. The entire process is fun, informative, and surprisingly easy.

David and Wilma Finlay are known for not following the herd when it comes to conventional dairy farming, but my guess is at The Ethical Dairy they will be making delicious-tasting cheese until the cows come home.

Their business is one of eight “local legends” being celebrated by the South of Scotland Destination Alliance. The others are: Wilson’s Farm, Allanton Inn, Barony Country Foods, Annandale Distillery, Kitchen Coos and Ewes, Cocoa Black, and Traquair Brewery.