VISIT OUR FARM
Come and visit us at Middleton of Rora. We live on a beautiful farm near the fishing port of Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. Here we have been farming for over 300 years and today we run a dairy farm with 250 cows and grow a variety of crops –grass, wheat and barley – which is fed to the cows to supplement their rich grazing. The surplus we grow is is often made into whisky and beer. We may not be able to offer you a dram, but we can offer you a tour of our beautiful farm. Give us a call and pop along for a visit. We would love to see you.
TALK TO OUR COWS
Our pedigree herd of 250 cows is made up of mostly Holstein Friesian cows with a little bit of Jersey and Norwegian Red thrown in.
They produce well over 2 million litres of milk each year and we make a deliberate policy of breeding cows for a long and healthy life.
We believe it’s our attention to our cows’ wellbeing and welfare which helps us make delicious, natural yogurt.
ADMIRE OUR SHED
We have recently built an award-winning shed which our cows obviously love.
Designed around six core principles of air, light, water, rest, feed and space, the shed is run by robots which allow the cows the freedom to choose when they’re milked and enables them to wander into the milking areas by themselves.
Because cows enjoy being milked, they now average just over three milkings a day compared to the standard two in a traditional dairy.
This increases our milk production and their happiness. To increase their happiness, we have also designed their shed to have direct access to the fields outside. Once a cow has been milked, the computer at the gate allows the cow to walk outside and enjoy a bit of grazing and Aberdeenshire sunshine.
GRAZING
We think cows like going outside and we’re delighted that ours can if they want to.
OUR ENVIRONMENT
Here at Middleton of Rora, we believe in sustainability. We are here for the long term and as such have a responsibility to look after our farm and the surrounding environment. We love the old saying that we should ‘leave this world a little better than we found it’. Here’s what we’ve been up to:
GREEN POWER
We have a wind turbine on the farm and solar panels which power the dairy on sunny days. The panels face east and west which spreads the electricity produced throughout the day.
WILDLIFE AND WATER
We’ve created wildlife corridors by leaving a 3 metre strip on either side of each ditch to enable wildlife to travel safely between the streams, rivers and woodlands.
A TREE IS FOR LIFE…NOT JUST CHRISTMAS!
We’ve planted seven new woods and copses along with several kilometres of new hedges around the farm and we find it very satisfying that they have become home to so many creatures including black birds, woodcock, corn bunting, thrush, roe deer, foxes and mice amongst others.
CHARITABLE GIVING
We love farming and we want to help others to be successful at farming too so we support a charity called Send-a-Cow which helps African families out of poverty though creating small but viable farming enterprises. We ask all visitors for a little donation which we then send to the charity. We have already bought one cow and would love to buy more.
OWLS
So pleased in the success of the woods and copses, we have put up owl boxes around the farm which are now inhabited by both tawny owls and barn owls. Nothing thrills us more than to hear the call of the tawny owls at night or catching a glimpse of the silent barn owls swooping through the farmyard at twilight.
OSPREY
An osprey roost which we installed in 2015 attracted a pair last summer much to everyone’s excitement.
To visit rora dairy, or to find out more about any of our farming methods and our environmental policies which go towards producing our milk and yogurt, drop us an email to hello@roradairy.co.uk
