If there’s a lover of all things bovine in your life, or if you, yourself, have a case of the ‘mad about cows’ disease, then A Dairy Story may well be the moo-vie for you.
A brand new Scottish documentary, it tells the tale of Rainton Farm, ‘The Ethical Dairy’, tucked away in the countryside near Castle Douglas.
Directed by Ian Findlay, who cut his teeth photographing the herd on the farm before taking on this, his directorial debut, the film follows David and Wilma Finlay, the agricultural pioneers behind Rainton’s innovative cow-and-calf system, and the efforts made to make that vision a reality.
‘It was probably as bleak a time as I can remember in farming, where we had committed ourselves to doing something which was controversial, and a lot of people were praying that it would fail.’
We join the project in 2012, amidst a traditional Scottish downpour, and are quickly introduced to the crux of the issue: every cow has an intrinsic bond with its calf, ‘but when you’re a dairy farmer, what you need is milk’. It’s almost the Annie Hall problem.
Before long, though, we’re introduced to both husband and wife, with special focus on Wilma, whose early stumbles when trying to address the camera are left in for us to see, lending authenticity and helping us to get a better understanding of the pair’s relationship. From there, their bond is as clear and integral to the dairy’s success as the links between the cows themselves.
Despite hailing from the muddy hills of Dumfries and Galloway myself, I know very little about cows beyond the udder essentials. In spite of that, I was surprised by how easily I was able to follow along with things, even when the film’s conversations move deeper into the pending questions of the current agricultural climate.
Though David and Wilma had a financial kicking with their initial pilot in 2012, their idea of keeping their cows and their calves together in one area of the farm did eventually take off in 2016. Of course, that was a decade ago, but the fight for change and progress within the industry goes on.
With any documentary, especially one that’s predominantly aims to encourage better practices in a specific field (pun intended), you run the risk of alienating audience members who fall outside the niche. Farmers and those working in the agricultural sector will no doubt get the most out of this – the film had its UK premiere at the Cameo earlier this week and the Q&A after the feature saw a lot of buzz and discussion. Even as an unenlightened critic who last stepped foot on a farm about fifteen years ago, though, there was enough in A Dairy Story for me to latch onto.
The film dishes out rural vistas from the word go, often offering a brief snippet of some part of life on the farm as a means of an interstitial between scenes. These little ‘slice of life’ shots run for just a few seconds at a time, but their inclusion manages to give the Finlays’ story a strong sense of place. Given the couple’s humane approach, keeping cows and calves together for the benefit of everyone – even the consumer, it’s entirely fitting that the documentary lends a lot of love to its bovine stars. You do get a sense for their beauty as well as that of the landscape they get to call home.
That well-established setting and connection to Rainton goes hand in hand with Wilma’s story. She bowed out of the corporate world, swapping out her maths degree for a life spent out on the farm and there’s genuine poignancy as a sudden diagnosis of stage 4 cancer leads her to reflect on time well-spent making a difference alongside her husband and their team. Wilma passed away just last year, and her ambition survives through Rainton’s efforts to push the cow-calf system even further.
As a testament to the benefits of the system – for one, better yields from the cows themselves, with the potential for many years more milk than typical methods – A Dairy Story is a convincing proposition, even for someone outside of the farming community. While your mileage with it will naturally vary from a moviegoing standpoint, it’s already sparking conversations within its intended niche and if you’re agriculturally inclined in any way, it’s just about essential viewing. I was impressed with how well it stood as an interesting documentary and look-in on the process all the same, with its care and grounded sense of place shining through. At 78 minutes long, it delivers its stance in breezy fashion, leaving the milking to the experts.
BBFC: Rated PG for mild bad language.
A Dairy Story is touring now, with showings in Stirling on the 15 and 19 August.
