Our Cows
Christmas (ear-tag 1225) is a swedish red heifer.
Here at Bays Leap we milk around 900 mixed herd cows. They are milked twice a day producing around 20 litres each per day.
They like to remain in a routine and this keeps them free of stress so that they can produce better quality milk. Being milked at 5am means they are able to stay out on the grass and either eat or rest for the whole day before heading back to the parlour for their second milking mid-afternoon.
You will see many breeds in our herds such as Holsteins and Fresians which are your typical black and white milking cows. We also have some little Jersey cows and they are very well known for producing high butter fat milk. So when you get that amazing layer of cream on the top of your milk in the morning you have them to thank. We also have some other continental breeds running through the herd, the picture above is a Swedish Red cow and the red and white ones in the fields are a Dairy Shorthorn. We are constantly introducing new breeds into the herds to ensure our milk remains high quality. The newest breed added to the herd is a Normandie which can be easily spotted by their distinctive red coat with a white line and spots across their back.
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Our girls are very well fed! You will have read in the about us section about how Chris our farm manager is passionate about how important it is to get things right, right down to the soil. So they aren't fed your standard back garden grass. Our field have a herbal leys with many different varieties of grass, herbs and clovers. Producing plenty of nutrients needed to keep our girls in tip top shape.
All of their food is home ground and especially around the summer time you will see lots of tractors in our fields and around the farm collecting in our cut grass and crop to store for their winter feed.
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