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Available for over a year

Sophia Morgan-Swinhoe, Scott Sanders and Sam Lewis sell milk and cheese direct to their local community, produced from a herd of goats and some 45 head of cattle. They’re young, driven and relentlessly hard working, herding their livestock up the steep hills of Powys on foot and forever looking for ways to optimise animal welfare. Many of the original dairy herd were rescue animals, they move the bull calves on as conservation grazers, and older cows are kept on farm after retirement. As a former vegan, Sophia describes the operation as an ‘ethics experiment’, using positive reinforcement by way of treats and scratches to build relationships with the animals and promote both safety and productivity. The farm is now not only profitable but also has a secure base. After ten years of hard graft and multiple tenancies, Dyfi Dairy at last have the keys to their first farm. The sense of security is a welcome relief. On the morning Verity Sharp visits, the new mobile, solar-powered milking parlour the trio have designed and built is in operation. As an approved calf-at-foot dairy, the small system enables newborns to be kept with their mothers during milking. They talk through how it works and then, after a steep climb up the valley to reunite the cows with the older calves, sit down to talk farm economics whilst handing round some of Dyfi Dairy’s legendary fudge.