Dairy cooperative Dale Farm has launched ‘Five Farm Minutes,’ an online series of short films going behind the scenes of life on a dairy farm.

In each film, Dale Farm shines the spotlight on a farm that is making a difference, focusing on topics like feed efficiency, soil sampling, milk recording, planting and maintaining hedgerows.

The first films, launched on Dale Farm’s website this month, highlight the sustainable steps farmers are taking to improve carbon efficiency on-farm and to inspire others on how to reduce their environmental impact.

The films were created as a tool for farmers to share their expertise, insights and real-life experience from within their business. The first farmers to feature include Matthew Alcorn from Omagh sharing his insight into feed efficiency for dairy herds and Hugh Harbinson from Aghadowey talking about his work with ARCZero and how he is managing carbon emissions.

Upcoming films will cover contributions from Philip Meeke of Dromara and James Brown of Ballywalter discussing how they have used hedgerow management to improve their farms and encourage biodiversity as well as Andrew Wright (Omagh), exploring the area of soil analysis and the impact it has had at farm level.

Dale Farm’s Neville Graham, Head of Farmer Services and Ed Wright, Head of Sustainability, work closely with the farmers featured in the films.

“Dale Farm farmers are extremely hardworking and passionate about the land they nurture,” said Neville Graham.

“More and more are getting involved in initiatives to improve the environment, encourage biodiversity and lower the carbon footprint of their farms. For that reason, exploring sustainability as our first topic in our new series ‘Five Farm Minutes’ felt appropriate.

“There are lots of great untold stories within dairy farming and these films will help give an insight into the innovation and hard work that goes on in farms every day. We support our farmer members through a wide variety of services, from the soil up, to make their businesses as efficient and profitable as possible. It’s encouraging to see many leading the way in modern dairy farming,” said Neville Graham.

Ed Wright continues: “With these new films, we hope to inspire, educate and celebrate the great work our farmers do every day. Thank you to all our farmers who have taken part so far.”

View Dale Farm’s Five Farm Minutes series on www.dalefarm.com/dale-farm-cooperative