The Environment & Animal Welfare
What do the cows feed on?
In late spring, summer and early autumn when pasture is plentiful and the weather is relatively good then our farmers put their herds out to feed on the lush, Cheshire grass as it is the best nature can offer. At other times of year when the grass is not growing and the weather is harsher cows tend to live indoors and will be fed on silage (grass cut in the summer and stored under wraps to preserve the essential nutrients) and other grass or vegetation based feedstuffs that keep the cows energy and nutrient levels up so they can keep producing milk in the dark, cold winter months.
Animal Welfare
We are committed to providing not only high quality food products, but to sourcing these from farmers and producers who take animal welfare seriously and who farm to a high standard of animal husbandry. All our farmers and producers comply with all relevant UK legislation to do with animal welfare which is already a high standard. Our dairy farmers all operate to the "Farm Assured" standard but most importantly of all they are all family run farms in Cheshire, many of more than one generation, who take pride in the quality of their herds and the way they are cared for.
To find out more about what makes our farmers and producers tick please follow the Meet Us link at the top of this page.
Is Creamline Dairies environmentally friendly?
We do realise that some people say that meat and dairy livestock are responsible for a fair amount of greenhouse gases. However we believe that this is outweighed by the value to society of milk - a mineral rich, nutritious food staple that is essential and good for people of every age.
In addition we deliver much of our milk in washable glass bottles that can be re-used many times if you return them to us, with recyclable foil lids. Our Poly bottles are also recyclable and are themselves made with a fair amount of recycled material already. There is therefore virtually no waste from our delivery system for milk and we can only encourage more people to sign up to the doorstep delivery service we provide.
Much of our produce is delivered on the back of electric milk floats which are clean, quiet and very energy efficient for stop/start deliveries. Our milk, bread, fruit, veg and many other goods come from local, family owned farms and companies ensuring that the food miles travelled are fewer and the values underlying our produce are fantastic.
We have made full use of carbon trust loans to upgrade our machinery to meet high levels of energy efficiency, We are full members of the Dairy Energy Savings Scheme operating under the Dairy Industry Climate Change Agreement with DEFRA and have met all our obligations there. So overall, we are doing our best, but we will always look for ways to provide our products and service in a more environmentally friendly way.