A new addition to the ranks of neo-rural cinema that is getting its hands dirty with the realities of the modern countryside, this mellow Scottish documentary lauds the emerging practice of cow-and-calf farming. It focuses on Rainton Farm in Dumfries and Galloway where, instead of the dairy-industry norm of separating calves from their mothers a few hours after birth, owners David and Wilma Finlay allow them to stay together until the youngsters are five or six months old. Having run a fully fledged organic operation since the 1990s, the Finlays have progressive form; Rainton is thought to be the first European site where cow-and-calf has been attempted at commercial scale.
This shakeup breaks dairy-farming orthodoxy, which refuses to waste lucrative milk on calves. Not only are neighbouring farmers sceptical, the cows initially are too: in the 2012 pilot, the animals were stressed out by the sudden change of routine when they were confronted with needy offspring that they had expected to disappear. Milk yields dropped, but rebounded to a 25% increase in subsequent trials, as the mums settled down and extra suckling stimulated production. An even greater revelation are the damaging routines imposed on dairy farmers by old-style methods: a stressed-out factory milking schedule that, ringfenced by intensive veterinary and crop fertilisation, has ecological repercussions in the fields.
Ian Findlay’s film, filled with drone shots of emerald pastures and gambolling calves, makes a handsome case that change is possible. The animal sentience considerations that spurred the Finlays to change their ways crystallise even further – with more time to acknowledge their needs, each animal’s individual personality becomes undeniable. Staunchly proselytising as well as slightly repetitive, this manifesto film glosses over a few details: fine ones, such as the economics at the farm, which David Finlay admits are a work in progress; and the real nitty-gritty, including the fact that the milk of human kindness has its limits at a beef-producing outlet such as Rainton. All the same, this is a quiet, steadfast challenge to the industrial-agricultural complex – as well an uplifting epitaph to Wilma Finlay, who died last year of lung cancer.
• A Dairy Story is at Norwich Cinema City on 30 July, then tours.
