Baysleap Farm Cow Turnout

Watching a mixed breed herd of 1000 dairy cows return to their summer pastures isn't a given on my usual Saturday To Do list.

However, the bucking and bronking of what seemed like a billion cooooos was certainly a thing to behold at Baysleap Farm, Heddon last weekend.

We made our way through herds of humans all heading in the same direction and spotted two stragglers swimming against the tide, backpacks in place and map in hand. They must've been doing Hadrian's Wall, and would have wondered what all the coooo style brew haha would've been about. They looked slightly dazed and even more puzzled. I'm guessing they'd have passed relatively few humans in the last 60 mile stretch from Bowness on Soloway to Heddon on the Wall and suddenly, here they were, swimming against the tide of eager coooo turnout groupies.

What constitutes as a turnout then eh? Well, the cows here at Heddon are kept safely ensconced in their big barns, keeping out the winter weather blasts from November until March.

During this time, the fields are given a chance to regenerate and spring back in Spring! They're fed a mixture of homegrown silage, which is dried cut grass from Baysleap's organic fields. They're also treated to some homegrown potatoes.

Then comes the day, before the return of the first swallow and maybe on a par with the first call of the chiff chaff, the cows are let loose from their barns and all belt for the green of the grass in the pastures plotted about the farm.

This was indeed a sight to see. Cajoled by our lovely neighbours to get promptly parked, "Quick Jos...the car park's filling up fast! "; anyone would think I was rallying for a supermarket sweep. But this is a hugely popular event with people having travelled from Durham and Sunderland to witness the coooos oooot!

There were cow clad marshalls, directing the way in high viz jackets (as if we'd think there was any possibility of them blending into the crowd!)

The Cow Turnout has been a thing since 2022 when it started as a relatively small affair with just a handful of Fresian followers.

I spoke to Katie from Baysleap Farm, who told me -

It's talked about fondly in our villages. People jostle to get pole position, field side, ready for the thunder if hooves...

Then boooooom, like letting the baby out with the bath water, there's an almighty collective rumble of bovine heading in one direction towards the greeeeeeeeeen of the grass.

There are balletic leaps of joy, comedic pronks on four feet...the equivalent to jumping sofas! These cows are some size. The joy is palpable and prescient. This rush for grass is like the dash at the sales, a lunge for a favourite rock star, the joy at leaving the office on a Friday! Who knew you could determine bovine euphoria?

I love this. It's different. It's not your usual way to wend a weekend, to spend a day observing the characters of cows!

And the Mellstroms have marketed this so well (Chris is head of the herd and farm manager). He's passionate about organic farming and it reflects and echoes throughout the farmyard and fields.

The cows are milked twice a day, once at 5:00am meaning they have the whole day to munch on the green stuff for breakfast and lunch before tea!

Chris has a bonny mix of Holsteins, Fresians and some teeny Jersey cows which produce that lovely creamy high butter fat milk, as well as Normandie with their beautiful red coats. I know my cows! I've a book for everything!

Chris' fields have herbal leys that hold many different varieties of grasses, herbs and clover, all producing a variety of nutrients which keep the cows tip top.

Baysleap Farm was bought by Graham Mellstrom, who bought the farm over 20 years ago. He always had milk ambitions, owning a herd of goats. As a small boy of 9, he'd milk them and cycle round his village, selling his wares door to door. His dreams of a diary were certainly not airy-fairy, as Baysleap has grown into a much bigger concern these days with milk, milkshakes, butter, and ice cream, made by Ciccerelli, but with Baysleap milk.

The story of Mr Mellstrom is printed on the back of the milk bottles we get from the diary and it's always lovely to be reminded of one man's mission to bring milk to the many.

If you visit, be sure to try out something delicious. Their farm shop selling their milk is open 10:00am to 7:00pm every day. We go as a treat...way toooooo often!