Stonebeck Wensleydale is a raw milk farmhouse cheese inspired by the heritage of our farm. The milk for our cheese comes from our small herd of Northern Dairy Shorthorn cows, a rare breed native to the Yorkshire Dales. They graze traditional wildflower meadows and pastureland. Cheese was made on our farm using milk from Northern Dairy Shorthorns up to the mid- 1950s. This historical link has inspired us to base our cheese making on methods from the early 20th century. We used references from 1917 and 1932 together with interviews with a 101-year-old local cheese maker to re-imagine farmhouse Wensleydale. We strive for integrity, authenticity and sustainability.
We are first generation farmers in the Yorkshire Dales, applying our scientific background and love of our environment with a holistic philosophy. Our vision is to work in partnership with the landscape and environment, making the most of its distinctive natural assets. Our cheese is made by hand, pressed and bound in calico before maturing.
The cheese’s taste and texture are an expression of our farm and place: soft and creamy with long, complex and layered flavour.
Low Riggs is an isolated hill farm comprising 460 acres of severely disadvantaged meadow, pasture and moorland in Upper Nidderdale. The climate is harsh and the growing season short, with long winters and high rainfall. We took on the tenancy in 2008 and initially farmed conventionally with 450 sheep and 20 beef cows and undertook significant restoration work. After 5 years, it became clear that to be resilient and sustainable we needed to diversify. A friend said to us ‘If you do what you have always done, you’ll get what you always get’!
We now operate an extensive farming system: unable to grow arable crops, we graze low numbers of animals on diverse swards over a large area with limited use of machinery and no artificial fertilisers. We cannot compete as a commodity meat or milk producer on such a small scale and so need to ‘add value’…. hence the cheese adventure!
We have restored 50 acres of traditional, species rich, upland hay meadow . Our cows graze on permanent pastures which are also in restoration projects and have over 80 species of wild flowers plus grasses. We apply our passion for the farm and attention to detail to our cheese making, which we hope, is true to heritage, embracing modern methods and closely connected with the land and our breed of cattle.
Northern Dairy Shorthorns, also known as “Dales Shorthorns” are a dual-purpose cow, producing both milk and beef. There is evidence to suggest that they are genetically distinct from the original population of Dairy Shorthorns and the more modern ‘blended’ Dairy Shorthorns. Small and agile, NDS generally have a woolly coat which can be white, red, red and white or roan, usually with white socks and a white tip to the tail.
During the 1940s it became obvious that the recently imported black and white Friesian was rapidly increasing in popularity at the expense of the NDS and other breeds. NDS breeders therefore decided to form an association, independent of the Shorthorn Society, with the aim of preserving and enhancing the native, Dales Shorthorn of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Co Durham, Northumberland, Westmorland and Cumberland. This new NDS society had 10,000 cows registered and 750 bulls in 1944.
However, by 1965 the Friesian had become the dominant dairy breed throughout the UK and only 62 NDS herds remained. At this point the NDS breeders took the difficult decision to merge with the Shorthorn Society, with agreement that the NDS would have their own separate register within the Coates Herd Book.
At their most endangered in the 1980s there were less than 40 purebred NDS breeding females. More recently, whilst visiting the Yorkshire Show, HRH Prince Charles was inspired to fund an embryo transfer project to increase the number of purebred females. We have one of these embryos, now a mature cow, Bradden Lowlands Melony, here at Low Riggs. Happily there are currently in excess of 150 living females of between 75 and 100% NDS “blood” in UK herds.
Because of our isolated situation and high herd health status here at Low Riggs, we have been permitted to use some of the straws of NDS semen collected by the RBST from 7 bulls during the 1960s, 70’s and 80s for artificial insemination. Being able to use semen from these 7 historical sires allows the UK NDS breeding programme to move forward on a strategic basis.
At Low Riggs we are fortunate to be able to have representatives of the majority of the remaining NDS cow families/female lines. Cheese has brought a true ‘raison d’etre’ to our herd; as well as helping to preserve NDS, we are putting them to real use.
Traditionally cows were turned out to pasture from their winter quarters in the middle of May and cheese was made, weather permitting, from then until the end of September. This is the model we have adopted for our cheesemaking, driven predominantly by the availability of grass. Thus our production follows a seasonal pattern and reflects changes in the quality, diversity and availability of the grazing that is available through spring and summer.
We know that our cows are happy metabolically because they are fertile, and produce a calf in the spring of each year. The average black and white dairy cow lives for 5 years whilst our herd will reach at least double that. We calve our cows in the spring and they will graze grass from early May to mid October, depending on the weather conditions. Cheese is made during the same period. The cows over-winter inside when they eat hay or silage made from our meadows.
We are currently milking our cows once a day, in the morning, rather than the traditional twice a day, thus allowing us to balance and sustain farm commitments and family life. It also suppresses milk yield to a degree, meaning that the modest milk yields produced require a minimum of supplementation. In fact, our girls only require a handful of protein supplement as reward for coming into the milking parlour. This means that the milk (and therefore cheese) that they produce is a true reflection of the food that is grown and that they eat, here at Low Riggs Farm. Under these circumstances our NDS cattle are giving us delicious creamy milk with high solid content and small fat globules that are retained in the structure of our cheese curd.
The increasing yellow colour of the cheese over the season is a direct consequence of the cows increasing consumption of grass with the pigment beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is one of several antioxidants in the milk of grass-fed cows and a Vitamin A precursor. Milk produced from pasture rather than silage also affects the sensory aspects of the cheese, with increased depth of flavour and a propensity for polyunsaturated fats rather than saturated fats, making the cheese softer at room temperature.
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