My family have been farming here in Newton St Cyres for over 450 years. 25 years ago my father and mother Sir John and Prue Quicke built the dairy where I continue to produce our award winning cheeses today.

The dairy is definitely the heart of the farm, which is set in 1500 acres of stunning Devon countryside, where our 500 cows provide the rich creamy milk to make our cheese and butter.

Care for this beautiful environment and the welfare of our animals lie at the very heart of the Quickes philosophy.

Our fantastic dairy cows plus young stock, a three way cross breed of New Zealand Friesian, Swedish Red and Montbeliard sires, feed on a 290 acre rotational grazing area in paddocks for 10-12 months of the year.

We chose to breed a grazing oriented cow with the emphasis on milk quality, good fertility and cow longevity.  When grass is less available, the cows also have access to troughs where they can help themselves to grass, whole crop and maize silage. Any surplus grass is converted from the grazing area if required and drinking water is plentiful.

We have 400 acres where we also grow wheat, spring barley, oil seed rape, oats and maize and sell cash crops through the co-operative Westcountry Grain.
Sharing the farm with some other residents such as woodlarks, grey partridges and brown hares, we ensure we continue to create a suitable habitat for them by growing a range of arable stewardship crops.

In fact we are proud to say that he farm has one of the largest Countryside Stewardship Schemes. So in addition to the wildlife habitats and with government help, we maintain and restore 170 acres of hedges, orchards, beetle banks, bankside trees and ponds, footpaths and have educational access so people can enjoy the countryside.