Regenerative Approach To Dairy Farming

Regenerative Approach To Dairy Farming

Written by Peter  Robinson

In June some members of CPRW Clwyd Branch joined members of Friends of The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB for a tour of Pentrefelin Farm at Llandyrnog. The farm takes a regenerative approach to dairy farming and are proud to be a cow and calf dairy, meaning all their calves stay with their mothers.

We were shown around by the Farmer, Huw Foulkes and he first showed us a field where they had planted Lucerne (Alfalfa) a few months earlier which would be used for grazing when taller. There was a lot of tall grass there too, but this had arrived naturally.

The cows are mainly Red Poll, but there are a couple of Welsh Blacks as well and a few other breeds. Huw took us to where they were kept – amongst long grass, together with their calves. There are a lot of smallish enclosures; the animals only spend 12 hours in each. Around 7pm the calves are taken indoors, and the cows are moved to another patch of fresh long grass. They are 100% pasture fed. In the morning cows and calves are reunited and moved to another patch. After about 60 to 90 days they would be back to where we saw them. The Red Poll bull is kept in with them and he seemed quite placid.

In the evening the calves have a good drink from their mothers before they are taken indoors, emptying some of the udders in the process – the cows are only milked in the mornings.

The calves suckle their mothers until about 6-7 months old and even when weaned they aren’t separated and remain in the “milking mob”. The female calves will all stay on the farm to join the milking herd once they are old enough. The males will stay on the farm until 2.5/3 years old and then will be sold as butchered and packaged beef boxes from the farm gate. These are available about once a month.

In lines across the field, between some of the enclosures he has planted a lot of fruit trees, currently fenced-off from the cows, to provide shelter for the animals and fruit to harvest later.

In another field Huw showed us some Muscovy ducks that he plans to eventually move around with the cows, together with some chickens. Apparently this is beneficial to the soil and to the cows.

There are many solar panels on the roof of one of huge sheds and rainwater is collected from another; fed into a massive tank. The water is pumped up to a tank at the highest point of the fields and then is gravity-fed to troughs which are moved around with the cows.

The milk is sold from the farm yard using an honesty system and is delivered to some local shops and coffee shops.

There is a lot of useful information on his website – https://www.pentrefelin.com/