The first bottles of milk to carry a “free-range” logo in the UK could be on shelves by the end of next year as a Somerset dairy farmer and leading proponent of free-range dairy prepares to publish the first standards next month.

Neil Darwent - farm director of Lordswood Farms, which has a 650-strong dairy herd - intends to publish a ‘Free Range Dairy Manifesto’ in October after considering the feedback from a consultation with 400 farmers, which will run throughout September.

Farmers will then be invited to take a ‘Pasture Promise’ to produce milk in accordance with the manifesto’s principles.

Farmers will pledge to graze their cows for a minimum of 180 days a year and rear or sell male calves for veal or beef production. On-farm breeding policy must also demonstrate a commitment to breeding “robust” dairy cows, by having a clear focus on Health, longevity and fertility. Red Tractor standards will underpin the free-range standards.

Darwent said he hoped milk produced to the free-range standards would fetch a farmgate premium over conventionally produced milk of about 1 or 2 pence per litre. He did not know what, if any, premium it would fetch at retail, he added.

The new initiative would be more accessible to dairy farmers than similar ‘pasture-fed’ production systems, as the free-range dairy standards would allow grain to be fed in addition to grass, said Darwent. “This was never about creating a small niche, but creating recognition for the vast majority of British dairy farmers who still do follow a largely free-range dairy system,” he explained.

There will be no initial charge for signing up to the scheme, but Darwent acknowledged that there would be a need for an independent auditor to be appointed once a logo was produced and used.

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