Dairy Story Review – giving cows and calves a happy life through progressive farming | Video

A a new addition to the standards of neo-rural cinema that gets its hands dirty with modern rural activities, the soft Scottish literature praises the emerging practice of cattle and cow farming. It focuses on Rainton Farm in Dumfries and Galloway where, instead of the dairy industry tradition of separating calves from their mothers a few hours after birth, owners David and Wilma Finlay let them stay together until the calves are five or six months old. Having run an environmental project since the 1990s, the Finlays have a progressive outlook; Rainton is thought to be the first place in Europe where cows and bulls have been tested commercially.

This shakeup violates the doctrine of dairy farming, which refuses to waste beneficial milk on calves. Not only the neighboring farmers are suspicious, the cows too at first: in the pilot of 2012, the animals are pressed by a sudden change of routine when they meet the needy children they hope to end. Milk production decreased, but increased again by 25% in subsequent trials, when the mother settled down and increased breastfeeding stimulated production. The biggest revelation is the destructive practices imposed on small farmers using traditional methods: a forced industrial system that, coupled with over-irrigation of livestock and crops, affects the environment in the fields.

Ian Findlay’s film, filled with drone shots of emerald pastures and galloping calves, makes a beautiful story that change is possible. It’s the feelings of the animals that inspired the Finlays to change their aesthetic ways – with more time to acknowledge their needs, the individuality of each animal becomes undeniable. A strong turn and a little repetitive, this manifesto film looks at the small details: the good, like the economy on the farm, which David Finlay admits is a work in progress; and real facts, including the fact that the milk of human kindness has its limits on a dairy farm like Rainton. As such, this is a quiet, sustainable problem for the agricultural industry – and an inspiring epitaph for Wilma Finlay, who died last year of lung cancer.