End of year round up – time to reflect

2024 has been a big year for us here at Fen Farm Dairy. We started the year by winning the Guild of Fine Food’s ‘Best British Cheese’ award for the second year running, as voted for by retailers around the UK. This was a really special moment, especially for our cheesemaking team who put untold amounts of energy and dedication into making Baron Bigod the very best it can be.

We have been steadily working on achieving our environmental impact goals here on the farm. In January we installed a further 135kw of solar panels on our barn roofs, bringing us to a total of 285kw of panels. This means that we are now able to produce as much energy as we use every year.

Our soil health goals are progressing well. This year we have successfully introduced several native plant species to our grazing pastures as well as replacing our remaining single-species grass silage crops with diverse herbal leys. The wide diversity of plant life is already measurably improving soil health and biodiversity on our farmland, and is proving to be more drought and flood tolerant. It’s also showing great benefits for the health of our cows and the quality of our milk.

We have seen two successful calving seasons, both in the spring and the autumn. After several years of careful breeding, our herd is now predominantly of the Montbéliarde breed, producing some beautifully rich and creamy milk.

Behind the scenes this year, Marc and our cheesemaking team have been having a lot of fun developing, maturing and of course tasting our new cheese! I’m not allowed to say any more right now but we are all really excited about it. It is tasting absolutely amazing and we can’t wait to have the first batches ready for sale in the new year!

Thank you for your continued support, we truly appreciate it and we wish you all the best for the new year 2025.