A Rollercoaster of a Few Months at the Ahimsa Dairy – Posted in: News, Updates

It has been a challenging end to 2015 for the Ahimsa Dairy and oxen. For a long time we have been planning to move our milking cows from the Kent Commonwork Farm to our Groby (Leicestershire) neighbour’s farm, where we would set up our mobile milking unit. Our Groby site land is without electricity – which we need for the processing of milk – so the arrangement with our neighbour had solved that problem for…

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A welcome surprise as Tilly produces her third bull calf – Posted in: Uncategorized

Our Swedish Red/Holstein cow Tilly has just rather unexpectedly given birth to a beautiful little black calf, who we have called Bala – meaning great strength. We only found out that she was pregnant at around six months and the young bull still arrived a bit earlier than we expected. It took him a while to get the hang of drinking his mother’s milk and we had to show him how to go about it.…

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On pleasing the cows – Posted in: Uncategorized

In most dairies cows rarely get treats. Farmers believe giving them anything beyond a routine diet eats into profits and wastes vegetables that could be sold at market. So the team at Ahimsa are often regarded rather oddly when we attempt to please our cows with tasty titbits. It is true, sometimes we are a little indulgent as we clear Waitrose shelves of organic carrots grown by Prince Charles, but actually it gives us as…

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From poser Ox to worker Ox – Posted in: Uncategorized

– by our ox trainer Syamasundara Das, who has 20 years’ experience persuading young oxen to go to work. There they are lying on the grass ruminating the days grazing, each with their place in relation to the others. The two oxen Dharma and Gautama were destined for work….. well that was the plan. The herd of 19 cows and oxen were sitting at the farthest end of the Ahimsa farm in Leicester. Better get…