Riverford Farm is an 800 acre mixed farm set in the beautiful South Hams area of South Devon. We have 250 head dairy herd and grow fruit and vegetables for Riverford Organic vegetable boxes.
The farm is run by Oliver Watson and his sister Louise. In 2007 Oliver built a new milking parlour and winter housing. This allows the cows to be fed under cover in the winter when the weather is too cold for the grass to grow or the ground is too wet and the cows would damage the fields. During this time the cows are fed silage and vegetables that do not go into the vegetable boxes. As much as possible the cows are left outside to graze freely.
The cows originally were Friesian because they are the predominant breed of dairy cattle due to their high milk yield. In recent years Oliver has been breeding in other types to give different characteristics more suited to extensive organic farming methods.
These breeds include Brown Swiss, Normande, Montbeliard, Swiss Red, Dairy Shorthorn and Ayrshire. By mixing these breeds with Friesian the cows tend to be more dosile, robust, easy to calve with less problems with poor feet and mastitis. The other advantage of breeding in ‘dual purpose’ cattle is that the bull calves can be raised for beef.
