WE'VE GOT THE WHITE STUFF

We’re known for our delicious Cheddar and butter but we never forget that perhaps the most important thing we do is taking care of one vital ingredient: our milk. There’s over 160 years of collective knowledge and an immense amount of skill that goes into crafting our cheese and butter, from cutting, cheddaring, pressing and churning to ageing and grading, but ensuring we have the very finest raw material is still an essential.

We have the huge advantage of farming in Somerset, where the perfect weather conditions create the lushest grass, but it’s not as simple as giving a cow a field and leaving her to it. Creating ideal conditions and caring for our cows all year round has been at the heart of the Wyke way, and the farming tradition of the Clothier family, for centuries now.

Dave Clothier, our Farm Director, sums it up when he says, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my years at Wyke Farms, it’s that great cheese doesn’t start in a dairy – it starts in a field.” With his brother Roger, Dave has followed in the footsteps of his father Jim and grandfather Tom, in caring for the 1,200 cows and the pastures they graze on, ensuring that contented cows are given all they need to produce the exceptional milk that’s required in the dairy.

So what qualities does the milk need to make the Wyke grade? “There are a few qualities that we strive for,” says Dave. “Milk that delivers high in butterfats and proteins, those two elements are key and offer the best platform to turn milk into cheese. Lactose is another, the element that gives milk that sweet aroma. When you walk into the dairy in the early morning, the milk is still warm from the parlour, and you can smell the richness of the grass they grazed the day before... that freshness matters.”

When it comes to maintaining that quality over a century and more, Dave puts part of the success to the make-up of the herd: “Our long string of cow families over the years, they’re the backbone in maintaining and building many of these qualities,” he says. There’s also what they feed on, of course, which is another of Dave’s focuses: “Feed plays a major part in taste and quality. It starts with the grass and clover swards that are fed or made into forage, then there’s the spring growth of sunshine and showers to bring out the new leys, herbal or meadow.”

While it might seem as if nature and the changing of the seasons should take care of the work themselves, that’s rarely the case, and a watchful eye and adjustments to planting and feeding are often needed. “If there’s too much rain or drought then qualities quickly deteriorate,” Dave notes. “When you’re working very closely with nature and animals, there’s so much that’s in the balance.”

So producing the best milk means maintaining rich, biodiverse grasslands, rotating grazing to regenerate the soil, even encouraging other wildlife, not just because that’s what the land deserves but because that’s the way to get the best grazing. “A relaxed, well-fed cow produces better milk,” says Dave. “Better milk makes better cheese. It really is that simple.”

For Dave, the Clothier family and all of us at Wyke, it’s a direct connection to the land, from pasture to plate. Working with nature, the land and the animals, is as much a part of the family heritage as the Cheddar that our ancestors created, and part of what we’re so proud to share with the world.

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