210From Dairy to Dinner
Jade stands among black-and-white cows in a shed at night under a single light.

The people

The people

A herdswoman, a farmer, a dog, four butchers, a curer and a chef. All by first name, as they are in the film.

210, a black Holstein Friesian cow with a white star on her forehead, looks straight at the camera in a sunlit field.

The cow

210

A 100% Holstein Friesian, eleven years old. Six calves, 38,663 litres of milk over 1,835 days in milk, then retirement on grass. The number on her hip is the only name she has ever had.

Jade sits in the straw of a calf pen, smiling, with a brown-and-white calf nuzzling her shoulder.

The herdswoman

Jade

She milks the herd before dawn and raises the calves. She came up through Young Farmers, where the lambs she raised won a butchers’ award. No one in the film is closer to the animals, and she is at the table at the end. The film is hers as much as 210’s.

Mac, a liver-and-white huntaway cross spaniel with amber eyes and a white blaze, looks into the camera against a dark background.

Jade’s dog

Mac

A huntaway cross spaniel, liver-and-white, and never far from Jade. He rides shotgun on the early milking and supervises from the cab.

Jon, in a dark jumper and wellies, stands in a field behind 210 under a wide blue sky.

The farmer

Jon

An organic dairy farmer and 210’s owner. He agreed to the idea over a pint, and he raises the toast.

Neil, bearded, and Peter, older and bald, stand at the butcher’s block in striped aprons, each holding a rib of beef.

The butchers

Neil and Peter

Neither had broken down a retired dairy cow before. With Craig and Louie they hung her for over six weeks, then cut her into steaks, joints, mince and sausages, with plenty of jokes along the way.

The craft

At the block, in the curing room, in the kitchen

None of them had worked with a retired dairy cow like 210 before. The butchers broke her down, the curer turned her into bresaola and salami, and the chef cooked her for the people who knew her. Hugh, who works on the farm and does not eat meat, got his own plate.

  • HughFarm worker, and a vegetarian
  • NeilButcher
  • PeterButcher
  • CraigButcher, formerly a chef
  • LouieButcher
  • PeterCurer
  • MarcelChef
Four butchers in white coats and striped aprons stand behind a wooden block, all looking at the camera, the two in the middle holding cuts of beef.
The butchers
Peter, the curer, holds up two netted salami in a room lined with hanging cured meat.
Peter, the curer
Dark cured joints of beef hang from a rack in a white curing room.
Bresaola, curing
Looking down on a long table laid with white cloth, glasses, bread and boards of charcuterie.
The table, laid
A wooden board of sliced salami with cornichons, pickled onions and a pot of butter, a toy cow behind.
Her salami, served

Jade and the calves

Where every dairy cow starts

Jade smiles at the camera as a brown-and-white calf nuzzles her hand and a black calf leans against her.
A black calf with a heart-shaped white blaze looks straight at the camera through the bars of a gate.
Jade kneels in the straw, smiling, with her arm round a red-and-white calf with a white blaze.

Photographs by Digby Oldridge.