Roan is a Darfield milk company run by the Davidsons. They allow the calves on their farm to stay with their mother and wean when they are ready using the ‘calf at foot’ dairying model.
While most conventional dairy farms separate calves from their mothers within days or even hours of birth, Chloe and James Davidson say its only natural for them to stay together.
Mr Davidson says it’s really just going back to what used to be done.
“We’re taking the house cow philosophy and increased on that. A lot of people back in the day had one or two cows they’d milk and they left the calf on,” he said.
Their cows are never herded into a shed either. Instead, the Davidsons have a portable milking truck which is towed right on to their paddock. The A2 milk is then pasteurised on site and bottled manually.
When the milk is delivered, the previous bottles are then collected for reuse. Mr Davidson says they probably get 90 per cent returned a week.
And they say the demand for their ethical milk has been huge.
“We got rid of 300 litres in the first day then it was sold out,” said Ms Davidson.
The couple are now looking into ethical cream, butter, yoghurt and even flavoured milks.