It is tempting to chase the breed with the biggest milk figures, but those animals are often bred for intensive grain-fed systems and struggle on a pasture diet. On an organic farm, the right breed is the one that turns grass into milk efficiently.

We favour hardy dual-purpose lines and well-chosen crosses that hold condition on forage, walk easily to distant paddocks and calve without trouble. A slightly lower peak yield is a fair price for a cow that lasts.

Match the animal to the land and the system runs itself. Fight the land with the wrong genetics and you will spend every season making up the difference.