The film follows the Scottish farm that became the first in Europe to keep dairy cows and calves together at commercial scale, and arrives as British dairy reaches a turning point.
It is the most divisive question in dairy farming: should a newborn calf be separated from its mother? A Dairy Story, the award-winning documentary about the Scottish farm that became the first in Europe to keep dairy cows and calves together at commercial scale, opens in UK cinemas on 4 August through Picturehouse Cinemas’ Green Screen programme, with a national run of screenings and Q&As through the autumn.
The film follows Rainton Farm, near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, now better known as The Ethical Dairy, the UK’s largest cow-with-calf dairy. Farmers David and Wilma Finlay began to question conventional practice when visitors to their farm asked, again and again, why the calves were raised apart from their mothers. Planning for a high-welfare, regenerative dairy model, one that centres animal sentience as well as the environment, began in 2008. A financially disastrous pilot in 2012 taught the couple a great deal, and in late 2016 they introduced their cow-with-calf system across the full 130-cow herd.
“It sounds like a small change,” said farmer David Finlay, “but that one thing, leaving the calves with their mother, changes absolutely everything. It took us a long time to figure out how to make it work, and we made a lot of mistakes, but it does work, and we would never go back to separating them.”
Wilma Finlay was diagnosed with cancer as work on the film began, and her diagnosis gave the project its urgency, capturing the story of the farm’s transformation while she was well enough to take part in telling it. Wilma died in 2025.
The film arrives at a turning point for British dairy. In June, AHDB figures showed the number of dairy farms in Great Britain had fallen below 7,000 for the first time, with 160 producers leaving the industry in just six months as farmgate prices fell below the cost of production on many farms. The wider dairy trend is one of consolidation and intensification. In May an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Guardian found that the number of dairy farms permanently housing cattle indoors has more than doubled in a decade.
Rainton is at the forefront of a small but growing network of farms moving in the opposite direction. David Finlay freely shares what he has learned about making a cow-with-calf system work with farmers interested in taking the same path, and the film introduces Michael and Lisa Kelsall of Farm on the Fell in Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland, who visited Rainton and went on to introduce cow-with-calf dairy management on their own farm.
A Dairy Story won the Louis Marcus Award for Best Documentary at its world premiere at IndieCork in October 2025, and the Audience Award at its UK premiere at the Central Scotland Documentary Festival in November 2025. In July 2026 it won Best Documentary Feature at Unisphere Film Festival, in New York.
The cinema run opens with a special preview at Norwich Cinema City on Thursday 30 July, with a Q&A panel featuring David Finlay alongside Philip Lymbery, Global CEO of Compassion in World Farming, and Rebecca Mayhew of Old Hall Farm, a Norfolk cow-with-calf dairy. Further Green Screen events take place at:
- Edinburgh Cameo, Tuesday 4 August
- Exeter Picturehouse, Tuesday 11 August
- Bath Little Theatre, Wednesday 12 August
- Henley Regal, Thursday 20 August
- Brighton Duke of York’s, Sunday 23 August
Panels across the run will feature David Finlay, representatives from Compassion in World Farming, and farmers from the UK’s growing network of cow-with-calf dairies. Further screenings will be announced in due course.
Philip Lymbery, Global CEO, Compassion in World Farming, said:
“A Dairy Story shows, with honesty and heart, that a more compassionate approach to dairy farming is a working reality. Compassion in World Farming is proud to partner with a film that lets audiences see it for themselves.”
The film was made independently by producer Lorna Young and director Ian Findlay, who are releasing it through their own company, Laverock Productions.
Ahead of release, more than 1,200 people across 28 countries have pledged their support for cow-with-calf dairy on the film’s interactive pledge map at adairystory.com, with requests for screenings arriving from around the world.
For debut director Ian Findlay, capturing the story of Rainton’s transformation was about putting a window on a farm he had come to know well through photographing the herd over many years. He said:
“There are many documentaries that tell you what to think about farming. We wanted to create a film that gives audiences the space to reach their own conclusions about the separation of dairy cows and calves, and to reveal the passion and the motivations that underpin a change like this.”