David and Wilma Finlay run a 340 ha farm in Dumfries and Galloway. Their three enterprises are the farm (dairy, beef and sheep), manufacture and sale of organic and fair trade ice cream, and a visitor centre with nature trail etc. They have also put up a community wind turbine on the farm.

They now have plans for a revolutionary change to their dairying system, leaving the calves with their mums until natural weaning at 11 months and milking the cows once a day. They are also changing the breed and feeding more grass and less concentrate. This will reduce milk production and milk taken off the cow in each lactation - but it will lead to longer productive lives for the cows, reducing the number of replacement heifers needed: will transform animal welfare; will increase beef production, and will reduce carbon footprint. The new herd will have 140 cows. A new AD plant will treat the slurry producing a more stable fertiliser as well as energy for use on the farm/to put in to the grid. The more social pattern of milking also makes the job more sustainable.

By contrast, most commercial dairies are now milking 1000 cows: keeping cows indoors all year round; using nitrogen fertiliser to increase grass yields, plus feeding high levels of soya-enriched concentrate; averaging 2-3 lactations per cow; and masking high incidence of stress, mastitis and lameness with antibiotics.

This is a pioneering example of a transition technology, providing sustainable meat and beef from relatively poor land which is largely unsuited to cropping.