An award-winning documentary exploring one of dairy farming's most hotly debated practices is set to begin its UK cinema release in Edinburgh next week. A Dairy Story, which follows the transformation of a Scottish farm into Europe's first commercially viable cow-with-calf dairy, premieres at the Cameo Cinema on 4 August.
The film tells the story of Rainton Farm near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, home to The Ethical Dairy, where farmers David and the late Wilma Finlay spent years developing a system that allows calves to remain with their mothers rather than being separated shortly after birth.
A high-welfare, regenerative dairy model
After early setbacks, the couple introduced the approach across their entire 130-cow herd in 2016, creating what is now the UK's largest cow-with-calf dairy. “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.”
Dairy farming at an all-time low
Its release comes at a challenging time for the dairy industry, with the number of dairy farms in Great Britain falling below 7,000 for the first time, according to recent Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board figures.
Against that backdrop, the documentary highlights an alternative model that combines animal welfare with regenerative farming, while David Finlay continues to advise other farmers interested in adopting similar practices.
Since premiering in 2025, A Dairy Story has collected several international awards, including honours at IndieCork, the Central Scotland Documentary Festival and New York's Unisphere Film Festival.
