meet the cows

While most of the world knows us for our Cheddar, our heritage here at Wyke stretches back even further. Even before we began making cheese in 1861, our family had been dairy farming in beautiful Somerset, here in the west of England, and it’s a tradition that continues to the present day. Our own cows are still producing delicious milk that goes into making our Cheddar as good as it can be.

On our farm in the village of Wyke Champflower we have around 1,200 cows, divided into two herds that are headquartered in different parts of the farm. They’re looked after by family members Dave and Roger Clothier, who follow in the footsteps of their father Jim and grandfather Tom, and a team of 18. “We’re lucky,” says Dave, “our farm is like an island – no major routes in the middle or parts of other farms. So one herd is at one end of the farm and the other one is sort of in the middle.”

Our cows are a cross between Friesian and Holstein breeds. “The Friesian is the more traditional English dairy cow, and the Holstein is taller, the cow you’ll find in Europe,” explains Dave. “They’re two-thirds to three-quarters Friesian, and that’s the cow that suits this dairy farm, and the land that we have. They’ll happily go out in the pasture for as long as you want them to.”

Of the farm’s 1,300 acres, around a third is grazing ground for the cows, and there are also areas with grass and wheat grown for their winter food. “The grass is really good,” says Dave, “as wetter areas are more suited to grass. We also put in a lot of clover, different herbal leys [seed mixtures with legumes and herbs] that are higher in protein, so we can rely on supplements less. That’s a big thing for us.”

Since we rear our own cows from birth, Dave and the team know them well. “We all have our favourites,” says Dave. “There’s one particular one for me who always comes up and says hello. They’re almost hand-reared, so what comes with that is a quietness and calmness. They know the farm and where they’re going.”

In many ways, it’s the same for Dave and Roger, too. “We grew up here under our father Jim’s wing and we took on his legacy. We always want to make things better but it hasn’t changed a lot and any changes you do make, it takes about two years to see them, whether it’s planting crops or raising a calf to a heifer. We just keep doing it.”

For more tales of life on the farm, read John’s blog, written by Dave’s uncle John Clothier, our Chairman and a second-generation Cheddar maker.