Seasonal Update – September 2024

As we move through the transition to autumn here near the Suffolk coast, the farm is a hive of activity. Autumn is always our busiest time, and a good moment to share a little insight into the seasonal happenings here at Fen Farm Dairy.

Right now, we’re just wrapping up our harvest season. Our barns are full of straw, which is an essential part of the farm’s cycle. Due to the cold wet nature of our East Anglian winters, the grass stops growing and the meadows are prone to flooding between November and March. During this time, we bring the cows inside to large open-sided barns and we use the straw from harvest time as a deep and cosy bed for them. The process of gathering straw takes several weeks. We bale up the straw from the fields of our neighbouring arable farmers and cart all the bales back to the farm to be stored in our shed.

Another important job for us, which continues throughout the entire growing season and into early autumn, is the harvesting and storage of winter forage for our cows. We try to avoid the standard industry practice of buying imported soy and grains from across the globe, with high food miles attached. Instead, we grow our own herbal leys in the fields surrounding our farm. These crops mimic the varied and nutritious diet that our cows eat in their natural summer pastures. They include plants and herbs like chicory, cocksfoot, clover, plantain and strains of traditional and modern grasses.

Each time we take a cut from the herbal leys, they regrow again within a few weeks, meaning we can take several harvests per year from each crop. These we store in “clamps” as silage, a natural method of fermenting feed-crops to store them for the winter. Silage fermentation uses natural lactic acid bacteria in an anaerobic environment to “pickle” the plants and preserve the nutrients. Think kimchi for cows but minus the salt, shrimp and chilli!

As I write, we are well into the autumn calving season and it’s an all-hands-on-deck effort. Our cows begin calving in September and this is a critical time for us. We focus on providing the best care for our newborn calves and their mums, including post-natal care and ensuring the new babies get a strong start to their lives here on the farm.

The calving season also brings a noticeable change in our milk supply. The autumn milk is particularly rich, with higher fats and proteins. While this makes for some of the best cheese and dairy we produce all year, it also presents some unique challenges. The increased fat content can make the cheese more creamy and gooey, so we must be very careful to adjust our process, especially by increasing the lactic acid bacteria during the cheese-making process. This helps us achieve a stable curd and avoid issues like wet or slippery rinds.

We’ve spent many years trying to perfect our skills and adapt our recipes to work with the natural seasonal variations in the milk. The cheese, butter and yoghurts produced during this time of year have a rich, creamy texture and a depth and complexity of flavour that we really hope you will enjoy.