Blog

There’s always something that goes wrong… for us it was a 10pm phone call from the sound and video team the night before the conference to tell us that, “unless it’s an overcast day tomorrow, no one will be able to see the slides.” The reason? We had ...

There’s a lively debate going on in the food world just now about how we address the complex and inter-connected range of challenges facing society. It’s known as ‘Sparing or Sharing’. The Sparing argument goes something like this; if we concentrate ...

Contrary to powerful, vested interests who are demonising all beef and dairy, grass-based beef and dairy can deliver good health and positive environmental outcomes. The conference we’re hosting on our farm next week will explain the science behind ...

While Wilma has been at the trade show in Birmingham, David has had a busy time meeting groups of researchers and explaining our cow with calf system. Last weekend we had three vets from Bologna in Italy visit – all very experienced with dairy cow ...

We are delighted to be adding organic ice cream to The Ethical Dairy range. We've been talking about these ice creams and testing out recipes for months now, and we finally launched this week at the Farm Shop & Deli Show at the NEC in Birmingham – ...

It seems that people are at last coming around to the idea that humans are the main cause of climate change and the we need to change our lifestyles to cut our carbon emissions. And FAST. So it would seem a bit contrary and counter-productive to ...

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Crowdjustice campaign in support of the five raw milk cheesemakers, including us, who are raising legal action against Food Standards Scotland. The background to this situation is described here. The ...

We all have our hobby horses and one of mine is wondering why farming doesn’t take more account of the societal effect it has? So the Nutrition & Social Impact session at the Ethical Farming Conference is one I am particularly looking forward to ...

If my life had taken a different path and I had never met David then I would now, almost certainly, be vegan. I met David in the early 1990s. At that time I had a sensible, well paid job in Glasgow and was making the most of city life. I would not ...

This is a blog post I hoped never to have need to write, but following this morning's launch of a Crowdjustice campaign by five Scottish cheesemakers, including us, I wanted to explain the background to this situation. There are only seven ...

It is great to know that so many of our customers love the WoolCool packaging that we use to send our cheese to your homes. However this is often quickly followed by disappointment that our cheese is wrapped in plastic. When you buy cheese at a ...

Across the farming industry agro-chemicals have boosted production in recent decades, but at a serious cost to wildlife and society. Organic farming isn’t just about avoiding these chemicals. It’s about understanding the natural processes that drive ...

It’s the middle of January already – yikes! We hope you had a good Christmas and a positive start to 2019. We have been quiet on social media recently, but things have been very busy behind the scenes so this is a quick update to let you know what’s ...

Now that winter has truly arrived and the cows and their calves are inside for the colder months, we thought you might enjoy a look inside their dairy shed. Our farm team built a new dairy shed about ten years ago, and although we weren't cow with ...

Those of you who live in the Highlands or Islands and have tried to place an order from our online shop will have noticed the eye-watering courier charges - getting chill packs from rural southern Scotland to rural north of Scotland overnight has ...

If you follow our posts on social media you might have noticed that for the past few months our posts have been completely devoid of sales messages encouraging you to buy cheese. It’s not that we don’t want you to buy our cheese (of course we do!) it ...

In the news today is a new report about deaths attributed to infections due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The report says that 33,000 people across the EU died from infections that were resistant to antibiotics in 2015, with 2,100 of those deaths ...

The Ethical Dairy in south west Scotland has announced plans to host what is believed to be the first Ethical Farming Conference, due to take place on 16 May 2019 in south west Scotland. The Ethical Farming Conference is designed to raise awareness ...

We use the term biodiversity a lot when we talk about our farming system because it is incredibly important to the way we farm here at Rainton. Put simply the term biodiversity means biological diversity. Biodiversity is the web of life; the ...