Some of you may have seen the article on the front page of The Daily Telegraph Weekend Section (Sat 27th June 09) reporting on a day out at the Bath and West Show, one of the highlights of which was watching the milking demonstration, feeding the Guernsey calves and seeing the surplus milk turned into Yoghurt and Butter.
This demonstration was provided by David and Rosie Paull from Babcary, Somerset who took 3 Guernsey cows from their Hurdlebrook herd and two heifer calves, it is the sixth year that they have supported the Family section of the show and are now also going to 3 other shows, Bedford and the New Forest shows in July and Hatfield House in Hertfordshire in August.
David Sedgman a local farmer does the milking and has developed a very good routine which is aimed at the children, but also gets the message across to the parents, about the production of milk, the regulations that must be observed (Cattle passports and individual identification of cows), but also concentrates on the unique health giving properties of milk and Guernsey milk in particular.
Rosie Paull and her two daughters are normally present throughout the duration of the show to look after the cows and calves and to answer any and every question, and the cows seem to enjoy the attention and the constant petting. It is a joy to see the look on the faces of the children as they get up close to the cows and there is a proper scrum to be able to bottle feed the calves.
At the Bath & West Guernsey milk from Berkeley Farm, Swindon is available to taste and again the reaction of in this case the adults is of value with comments such as “this is how milk used to taste” and “where can I buy this milk” being common place.
The Paull’s and Nick Gosling of Berkeley Farms are to be thanked for raising awareness of “our” product and I know that Mark and Susan Jones at Garway in Herefordshire have been asked to do something similar at the Three Counties show with Guernseys from their Kelsmor herd.