OUR STORY
2nd Generation Family-Owned Business
Merrimilk is produced at Merrivale Farm by the Mason family and our herd of Pedigree Holstein Friesian Cows.
Bob & Sue moved themselves and 60 cows to the farm from Staffordshire in 1981. The farm is rented on a 3 generation tenancy from The Duchy of Cornwall. In 2013, Bob and Sue moved out of the farm and handed the tenancy to their son Ben. He now lives on the farm with his wife Emily & their 3 children. Ben & his sister Lucy now run the farm between them with (alot!) of help from their herdsman Ellis.
The herd has steadily grown and there are now 180 cows on the farm.
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OUR COWS
Merrivale is very much a famly run business. As a business we are always looking for ways to improve how we do things, many changes having taken place over the years. We are very committed to our farm and the care and treatment that our cows receive.
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Our cows are all Pedigree Holstein Friesians, the original herd having been owned by Sues Father many moons ago. They all have names which are taken from their parents, it means we can easily keep track of bloodlines and who's related to who.
Originally our cows were milked in a parlour, where they are brought in twice a day and one person would attach the milking machines to them. We changed this and moved to robotic milking in 2007. We now have 3 milking robots that mean the cows sort of milk themselves. The robots run 24 hours a day and milk one cow at a time, it's all automated meaning the cows take themselves in to be milked when they fancy it. As they can pretty much please themselves, they're a very happy, chilled bunch, some with pretty big personalities!
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OUR MILK
Our Milk is 100% Organic PWAB fresh whole milk. We batch pasteurise our milk and don't homogenise it, meaning it has cream that rises to the top. If semi-skimmed is more your thing, just pour the cream off the top and there you have it.
100% ORGANIC, FREE RANGE & PWAB CERTIFIED
We moved to Organic production in 2000 which means we cannot use any artificial inputs on our land, such as chemical sprays and fertilisers. It also restricts the products that we can use to treat our cows. In 2020 we took this a stage further to become 'PWAB' certified, meaning we don't use any antibiotics on our milking herd.