Off the back of this thread I emailed Yeo Valley to ask if all their suppliers treat their cows in the same way they do on their own farm and I was satisfied with the response, I think they are saying that all the milk they produce has similar animal welfare standards?! I was interested as DH and the DC do drink milk.
From the moment any of our calves are born they stay exclusively with their mother for a minimum of the first 3 days. Practices vary from farm to farm. They are removed from their mothers at this time so that the bond between the cow and calf is not too strong and so that the cow can rejoin the main milking herd. Sometimes the cow still calls for the calf but this is usually stops after an hour or so. If required it can then get its milk from either a nurse cow or go into a pen to be fed individually so its feeding and welfare can be monitored.
All our calves are fed milk up to 12 weeks, which is 6 weeks longer than conventional calves. We keep our calves in pens to allow them to develop until they are confident to be placed and raised in groups. The group then stay together grazing indoors or out, depending on the weather conditions.
Please let me reassure you that on our Yeo Valley farms, when a bull calf is born, we never destroy the animal as we rear British Friesian calves that have a value when reared for meat. The Soil Association don’t allow their farmers to shoot any calves at birth, instead an alternative market must be found. We do not currently do rose veal, but grow them on until they are two to three years, this is most suited to the British Friesian. This breed may not produce the sheer quantities of milk a Holstein would produce, but is the most suited in our opinion, to succeed within our climate and also be a dual purpose animal producing both meat and milk. Unfortunately we cannot keep all of the bull calves on our farms due to the numbers and the space required. We do sell some of them, however, we use the local market that we know well and do not deal with stock market dealers who specialise in export. Any calf we sell would be sold before 42 days; they would never be sold to be exported but would have to be grown on in a similar way to us.
All of our delicious organic milk comes from a South West based cooperative of dairy farmers (OMSCo), whose cows are all able to graze on the lush pastures of England & Wales. All their animals are raised in accordance with organic standards. Each farm will work to the organic standards, but implement things slightly differently to our own farm but at no detriment to the animal. We are working with OMSCo and The Soil Association to provide further education to improve welfare on these farms also. The benefit of OMSCo is that all farmers are paid a fair price for their milk so then can develop sustainability within farming. A fair price means a farmer can plan and invest and it is our aim to see farmers succeed in the UK as too many farmers historically have given up farming because this has been un-economical for them.