Organic Farmers

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Are there any ethical Organic Dairy farmers in the UK who use dual purpose cattle? Thank you?

I saw an episode of Countryfile last year but cannot find out where the farm was (in the West Country I think) and they used cows suitable for both milk and milk so the male calves were not slaughtered at birth. I would like to know how ethical Organic dairy Farming is for example how long after birth the calves are removed and if there is a 'good' time that the calf and mother stay together before being separated and either used for milk or meat and if there are any suppliers that do this? I have found out that Rachel's organic are owned by a GM using company in the US so trying to find more info. Cheers.

From my records

The cattle registered for dairy in the UK are:
Ayrshire
Brown Swiss
Canadienne
Dairy Shorthorn
Dutch Belted
Estonian Red
Friesian
Girolando
Guernsey
Holstein
Illawarra
Irish Moiled
Jersey
Kerry
Lineback
Meuse Rhine Issel
Milking Devon
Montbéliarde
Normande
Norwegian Red
Randall
Sahiwal
Shetland

The registered beef cattle are:
Aberdeen Angus
Africander
Aubrac
Barzona
Bazadaise
Beef Shorthorn
Beefalo
Beefmaster
Belgian Blue
Belmont Red
Belted Galloway
Blonde d'Aquitaine
Bonsmara
Boran
Braford
Brahman
Brahmousin
Brangus
British White
Buelingo
Canchim
Caracu
Charolais
Chianina
Composite
Corriente
Devon
Dexter
Drakensberger
Droughtmaster
English Longhorn
Galloway
Gelbvieh
Gloucester
Hays Converter
Hereford
Highland
Hybridmaster
Limousin
Lincoln Red
Lowline
Luing
Maine-Anjou (Rouge des Prés)
Marchigiana
Mirandesa
Mongolian
Murray Grey
Nelore
Nguni
Parthenais
Piemontese
Pinzgauer
Red Angus
Red Poll
Retinta
Romagnola
Salers
Sanganer
Santa Cruz
Santa Gertrudis
Senepol
Simbrah
Simmental
South Devon
Speckle Park
Square Meaters
Sussex
Tarentaise
Texas Longhorn
Tuli
Wagyu
Watusi
Welsh Black
Whitebred Shorthorn
Zebu

If you take the time to look at beef and dairy cattle you will realise they are worlds apart in stature and no commercial breeds are suitable for both purposes.

No-one can comment on if a farm is "ethical". Thats for you to decide because only you know what your ethical boundaries are. Personally, no dairy or beef farm is ethical to me, but you might think killing animals for food is ethical.

One persons "ethical" is another persons" exploitation"

Here are my observations from local dairy Farms. These are NOT the factory dairy farms, these are local farms....

Artificial incemination every year
Cows would naturally calve every 2-3 years. Dairy farms artificially inceminate them every 11 months. This causes excessive stress on the cows body, increses the chance of prolapse and generally "wears them out" in a few years, rather than a natural 20 years.

Protein enriched feed
The feed they are given is enriched with artificial growth foods. these are generally made with cattle meat protiens.

In the USA and some parts of Australiasia they use a hormone growth agent called recombinant bovine somatotropin. Its brand name is POSILAC® and its made by Monsanto. This increases milk yield and beef growth. This is a synthetic hormone. Its banned in the EU since 1988

The main mechanism these hormones work is by re-directing dietry nutrients from peripheral body tissue to mammary glands. effectively, they are slowly killing the cow.

70% of US cattle are injected with this growth hormone ( 2007 stats ) that the majority of the world will not entertain because they believe its too dangerous.

Bribe/feed caged carousels
These suck. They are large rotating carousels where the cows are caged in a space where they cannot move. They have "black boxes" on thier legs which communicate with the main operating computer. They are fed just the right amount of food depending on how much milk they gave yesterday. They have added growth food if thier production drops
One person can milk about 400 cattle on a carousel so there is no time for checking the animals health - they just milk them dry and kick them out.

killing bulls, excess calves and free martins at 1 week old
All bulls are killed at 1 week old, although some farms iin the UK started ( in 2006 ) shipping them to Continental Europe for veal again. They do not keep any back for breeding as they bring in new blood lines. In the UK we don't use dairy bull calves for veal anymore in country. They are either killed, or shipped out. Bull calves go to make low quality leather products such as cheap sofas.
They kill all free martins as there is a good chance they will be barren.
Strangly, they feed these animals with colostrum at birth to keep them alive, but then kill them a week later.

excess feeding to produce 60 lites of milk per day
The growth food is all designed to produce excess milk. Cows are naturally designed to produce about 15 litres. The european targets for 2009 are set at 90 litres, i don't think it need me to tell you if this is heading the right or wrong direction.

intensive rearing means low husbandry checks
As mentioned above, most automatic dairies have one milkmaid per session, thats it. I know a dairy farm with 1200 cattle and 3 employees. Tell me how they can ever check the cattle....

removing calves from mothers after colostrum feed
This is stressful, cows bawl for weeks for thier young, calling them to be fed. Obviously the calf cannot "run to mom" because its in dog food by now.

killing the cow at 7 years old
Cows can naturally live to 20 years old. Production dairy cows are killed after 4-6 births so are never kept after 7 years old.

Hope that helps.