Why Organic Milk?

Why Organic Milk?

We’ve been producing organic milk and dairy products for over 30 years! We think it’s pretty special for lots of reasons, but so do our farmers too.

Yeo Valley Organic’s network of 130 farmers all produce milk to organic standards. But, what does ‘organic’ really mean when it comes to dairy products?

On a family farm on the edge of the Shropshire Hills, Chris Jerman has a herd of 70 organic cows. He converted to organic farming nearly 25 years ago. We asked Chris to break down the differences for us…

Are there any differences between being a conventional dairy farmer and an organic dairy farmer?

Chris says: “I think fundamentally the challenges organic farmers face are broadly the same as conventional farming in that we are trying to make our land and animals survive and hopefully thrive in an ever more unstable economic and meteorological climate. The difference lies however in how we approach it. Organic farmers have far fewer tools in their toolbox to get out of problems and so we focus far more towards the prevention end of the spectrum than the cure."

It sounds like being an organic farmer is rewarding but can it be more challenging than conventional farming?

Chris says: “I believe that in farming (and probably in many parts of life) the further you stray from nature the harder your life is going to get and so with a much smaller toolbox in our armoury it's very important in organic farming to mimic nature as closely as possible.

I would say the main challenge we face in Organic farming is how to stray towards nature while remaining economically viable."

Watch to find out more about our Organic Milk...