State Of Origin

The rise of farmstead cheeses is the fortuitous foil to the trend towards intensive dairy farming,

- Will Studd

Imagine a future where the only breed of milking cow is the “factory” Friesian, and low-cost industrial production overrides animal welfare. A world in which robots milk cows on demand, “fresh” milk costs less than water, and traditional soft and blue raw-milk cheeses have disappeared. We can tick at least some of these boxes right now.

Take Italy for example. Over the past 50 years, it has lost five cattle breeds and about half its traditional regional cheeses. Drive through the countryside where Parmigiano-Reggiano is made and it’s possible you won’t see a single cow. This is because the milk for this benchmark cheese is now sourced in large part from Friesian cows housed in barns where their diet can be strictly controlled. (In an ironic twist, their feed includes grass cut from the pastures they once grazed.) This means the cheese can now be made throughout the year rather than its traditional six-month season.

Denmark and the Netherlands have taken intensive dairy farming a step further. Around a quarter of all milk is now collected from dairy herds kept inside and milked on demand by robots. In the next decade, this percentage will double.