A ‘Pretty’ Arrival at Acorn Dairy With a lovely warm wind and October sun shining, Archdeacon Watzon Pretty was born today. Here she is on her feet, taking in her nursery paddock scenery, just six hours after landing. Like her mother, Pretty is a Dairy Shorthorn cross. The brown colouring can take several generations to come through. The […]
Photos from our Welly Walk Customer Evenings We were delighted to have just under 200 of our local customers from Darlington, Richmond, Barnard Castle, Northallerton and Aycliffe come along to see how we produce their milk. The three early evening walks were blessed with good weather. The aim of the events was for customers to see how […]
Annual Inspection by the Soil Association – Acorn Dairy Ticks all the Boxes This week we have a Soil Association inspector with us. All aspects of what we do from field to bottle is looked at. This includes looking at our comprehensive reports covering land management, silage storage, slurry use, VET and meds, individual animal records, feed and seed bought for and fed […]
What a busy organic dairy farm we are today… The contractors are in with their big tractors again, cutting and clamping our wheat. This will give some excellent home grown protein in our cow’s diet over the coming winter season. The ‘whole crop’ is chopped up (ear and stem.) This will be mixed with our organic grass silage, and a mix of organic cereals […]
Extending of our Comfy Cow Tracks A cow lives on her feet for most of the time and we take foot care very seriously. They are heavy creatures with a relatively small hoof to take the weight. Barry, Phil, Richard and Raido regularly give the herd a pedicure to keep hooves neat and in good order. There […]
To Irrigate, Inject,Tanker or Umbilical…That is the question One activity you may not picture when thinking about how your milk is produced, is slurry handling. This is liquid heaven for soil and is a key nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium source for our grass, as we obviously do not use artificial fertilisers in organic farming. Depending on the weather, the maturity of the […]
The soil is perfect and Barry, Phil, Richard and Eddy are our four man thistle and dock hit squad, in between milkings. Turning our back on chemical herbicides in 1998, meant seizing opportunities to tackle weeds, at the optimum time (i.e. before they seed and spread.) Here you see Barry with our ‘Lazy Dog.’ An implement which levers […]
Customer Open Day We hope you can join us at Acorn Dairy 12pm Sat 21st Sept Bring a picnic to enjoy, choosing your own spot near our wind turbine with the grazing cows, before rounding them up for milking, and seeing our little calves A very relaxed event. Please bring wellies and children if you […]
Acorn Dairy’s dedication to using on farm Green Energy wins Award After four years we are now producing our own, green energy supplying directly the farm and milk processing plant requirments. Friends of the Earth have awarded Acorn Dairy a Clean British Energy Award in recognition of four year’s dedication to make this happen. http://www.foe.co.uk/green_blog/acorn_wind_turbine_39768.html
27th September- London Valentine Warner presented one of only a few Good Dairy Awards to be given, to Acorn Dairy. Compassion in World Farming recognises Acorn’s strong attention to their cow and calves welfare. Already farming to Soil Association organic standards, and putting strong emphasis on access to grazing, Acorn’s cows and calves are free […]