Auchlea Farm is situated six miles west of Aberdeen on a mainly south facing hillside. The herd is predominately Holstein/Friesian coming from a Swedish Red and White background, and they are milked twice daily through an 8/16 herringbone parlour. The cows out grazing by mid April and, depending on weather conditions, are usually housed for the winter by November.
Producing organic milk was a diversification from mainstream dairying nearly 25 years ago with all of the milk being sold to OMSCo, and this is still the case today. Farmer Allan Clark believes that farmers are only ever temporary custodians of the land and countryside and it is his great goal in life to leave the land in a healthier state than when he started. Farming organically, without pesticides, antibiotics and intensification, helps greatly in achieving that goal.
Allan Clark said:
"It is very sad that the present generations have witnessed the great demise of the lapwing, curlew, skylark and other farmland birds. The dawn chorus is a pale shadow of what it used to be. A car run in the country in summer used to result in having to clean windscreens and radiators of bees and insects. There is no doubt that modern farming with its incessant pressure to produce cheap food for an ever growing human population has played its part in this.
"Our countryside is for all to enjoy and it is a privilege to live and work in it and to be able play a part in preserving and enhancing it. However there is always a price to pay and organic food cannot be produced as cheap as mainstream, it does need a little premium, which I hope the general public understand and support."