This week it has been good to get back to normal after several days at The Great Yorkshire Show. Although tired we have a sense of elation as Ben and an Abbiene cow were champion Holsteins for the second year.
Bailmoor BHC Crushabull B Abbiene is the daughter of last year's winner and is Ben's cow, Stephen and I can't take too much credit, other than being the backup team. Particularly Stephen, as although I no longer stay over at the show I travelled each day to Harrogate.
Having, I might add, fed calves and opened up the milk hut before I left. It goes without saying we are so very proud of Ben, it is thought that a dam and daughter winning consecutive shows has not been done before. The show was once again a great shop window for British agriculture and such a good way to connect with the general public.
You get a lot of people watching the cows being milked and also them being clipped and prepped for the show ring in the special area provided by the show organisers.
Back home and business head back on, especially how to keep the milk hut busy. I had a visit around a much larger operation recently, not a size I have ambitions of growing to.
But it's good to get a different view. One thing I didn't agree with was on homogenised milk. We sell non-homogenised milk but I heard someone say that the modern housewife doesn't like the cream on the top of her milk. It's not how my customers view it, not that I have many typical housewives, I think that term needs consigning to the history books.
Anecdotally many customers say that previously lactose ‘intolerant' consumers can tolerate non-homogenised milk possibly because it hasn't been processed as much. You also get those people who are top of the milk lovers and race to get the cream in the morning on their cereal.
I suspect it's supermarkets who like to blame this mythical creature 'the modern housewife' as they prefer milk that looks the same and lasts longer on the shelf. We put three days use by on our, partly because you have to do more tests if you state a longer use by but mainly because we believe milk should be fresh.
With school holidays now in full swing, I'm hoping that we get a lot of visitors to the milk hut for lovely fresh milkshakes, we are a pleasant mile long walk from the village so for this reason and a few others, fingers crossed for a break in the unsettled weather.
