"A farmer’s responsibility is to build soil fertility."
Patrick Holden
Holden Farm Dairy
The Holden Farm Dairy
Patrick Holden farms at a mixed farm in the United Kingdom, in Bwlchwernen, Wales, where along with his wife Becky and his son Sam he runs the Holden Farm Dairy using sustainable methods.
Patrick’s wife Becky looks after the seventy-five Ayrshire cows, whose milk is processed on the farm to make Hafod, an organic raw-milk cheddar cheese. The Holden Farm Dairy is the longest established organic dairy farm in Wales.
As well as running the farm, Patrick also has what he calls his day job, work that includes the development of organic norms and the market for organic food, and a position as trustee of the Soil Association. He was director of the Soil Association from 1995 to 2010. Back in 1982 he set up British Organic Farmers. Holden is furthermore patron of the UK Biodynamic Agricultural Association and the Living Land Trust, as well as adviser to and participant in the Prince of Wales Terra Carta initiative.
In 2010 Holden founded the Sustainable Food Trust, an organization based in Bristol that works internationally to accelerate the transition to more sustainable food systems. Important activities of the organization include influencing government policy with regard to sustainable agriculture, advocating a real calculation of costs and the development of a common international framework.
Patrick Holden is a pioneer of the modern sustainable food movement and much in demand as a speaker and campaigner for organic food and farming. Recently he has been a member of the British government’s working group for a Foresight report on the future of food and farming, and an adviser to the Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit.
Visiting the Holden Farm Dairy
We arrive at the farm on a Sunday afternoon. The cows don’t take Sundays off, so Becky was up at five to look after them and from our little wood cabin we watch the procession of them slowly coming up the road towards the cowshed, escorted by Becky on her quad bike. In front of the cowshed doors the herd waits and enjoys the whey that has been caught in big concrete tanks. Whey is the fluid left over when you make cheese from the milk these animals produce. After the ladies have finished drinking they patiently go into the cowshed where they are led in groups of five to the milking parlour to be milked.
Patrick affectionately calls his wife Becky “the cow whisperer”. She knows each of her cows and their habits, their characters, their idiosyncrasies and quirks. She knows which to put together and which to keep apart, who gets along with whom. Patrick brings us a jug of fresh milk the colour of unwhipped cream, and it tastes like cream, too. It has nothing in common with the watery liquid we know from the supermarket.
These cows are fed with what’s grown on the farm and they give around 3,400 litres of milk per year. Contrast that with the up to 6,000 litres produced by Dutch dairy cows and you’ll understand well enough the difference between cheap and sustainable, and between animal-friendly production and the exploitation of livestock, farmer and environment.
When at nine o’clock in the morning we emerge from our cabin and go looking for Patrick, the entire Holden family has already done a day’s work. A quick job for the neighbour and then he’ll have time for us.
Shortly after eleven Patrick comes into the converted barn where, sitting on the wooden picnic table, he begins his lecture.
In 2005 Patrick Holden received a CBE for services to organic farming, making him a Commander of the British Empire.
"A farmer’s responsibility is to build soil fertility. We will all depend on it for the future."
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