Supplier Spotlight - Olive Farm Review: Raw unpasteurised Milk
Supplier spotlight: Olive Farm.
Suppliers of: Raw milk, cream, yoghurt & cheese.
Outlets in: Nottingham, Islington, Marlebone, Oxford, Guildford, Frome & Montacute.
Overton Farm
Babcary, Somerton
Somerset, TA11 7EJ
Tel: 01458 223229 Website: www.hurdlebrook.co.uk Email: [email protected]
We made a last minute phone call, not disclosing who we were and simply asked for a quick visit with our children to their farm. We explained that we had been purchasing their delightful dairy products for over 3 years and would love to show our kids where their milk came from. Without hesitation we were given a direct mobile number for Dave Paul, the owner and farmer. A quick check to find out what time would suit a him, his reply was "Whenever you ready"so we jumped in the car and were on our way.
An hour later we arrived at the farm located in Babcary. It's a beautiful, peaceful location away from the hum-drum of daily life. As you approach the farm your can feel the crisp air and take in the untouched greenery. As you turn into the drive you pass a small herd of Guernsey cows on your left that are currently pregnant waiting to give birth. We drive towards the farm house and Dave is there ready to greet us. After parking the car and getting the kids out, Dave introduces us to his mother, a strong elderly lady who isn't afraid of hard work. To our surprise we saw her a little later whizzing round the fields in huge tractor!
Dave walks us over to the younger cows, between 1 and 3 years old, that are kept near the barns and are in the middle of eating, we all got a chance to get close to them, the only time cows seem calm and friendly is when they are eating. Any other time we approached them they seemed very shy of human contact. Something we hadn't realised was a common trait in cows. After this we were led round to see the bull and the largest animal on the farm, a 5 year old steer (castrated bull), who had become more of a pet for Dave and his team.
All the time Dave was happy to answer our questions and teach us more and more about farming cattle. So much thought is given to each stage in a cows life, from birth, weaning, breeding & milking. It's a very gently process and followed to the letter. Each stage is carefully managed and thought out to ensure that the cows lead a happy, content life and once old enough are able to serve their purpose of providing high quality milk and dairy produce.
We saw how the silage is prepared and stored so that the cows can have a food supply through the winter months. We were impressed to learn that silage is basically fermented grass maintained at the stage before it turns to compost and contains great nutrition for the cows. To feed all 150 cattle through the winter months Dave needs to prepare between 8 - 10 tonnes of silage during the summer months to ensure enough quality silage is available. This quality feeding maintains the standard of the milk throughout the summer months and stops any reliance on outside grain based feed on the farm.
The milking area was spotless and run like clockwork, each cow is marked on the rear so that when they are facing away from the farmer to be milked he can identify each one.
Dave explained to us that he keeps the cows that are calfing in the field close to the house so that he can keep an eye on them, he has a great amount of understanding and knowledge and knows all the signs of what to look out for especially if a cow is giving birth or if there is a problem.
L-R: Dave Paul & Ben Pratt
Having seen the exceptionally high standards that are kept on Olive farm, we couldn't resist asking why Dave didn't have organic status. He informed us that maintaining organic status may sometimes restrict the good practice a farmer already has in place. As well as that it can be very costly. Don't be fooled by lack of status, Olive farm is an exceptional family run operation without any interference from external inspectors and in our opinion rates higher than organic as they supply unpasteurised, non-homogenised dairy products straight from their herd, which contains pro-biotic bacteria, high quality casein and whey protein, short and medium chain fats, fat soluble vitamins A,D & K, CLA, enzymes, high levels of calcium and other important minerals. This is Mother Nature at her very best, working with one of Britains finest dairy farmers.
