MANY people have their milk delivered direct to their doorstep on a regular basis, pay their monthly bill and give its source little thought.

This was indeed the case with the milk that my family has been using for five years, so I decided to follow its trail back to the beginning.

This lead me to Dunn's Dairy, a medium-sized organic dairy farm near Drewsteignton. It was set up 30 years ago by Harold and Molly Dunn, both 60. But now the couple are taking a back seat in the business as their two daughters, Julia, 22, and Catherine, 32, take over the farm.

Julia said: "The shape of the business is changing at the moment, as mum and dad are stepping into retirement and Catherine and I are learning how to run everything on our own."

The farm has around 130 Friesian cows who freely graze in the grass fields.

With an average weekly production of 15,000 litres of milk, the dairy offers pasteurised whole, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk, along with Devon clotted, double and single cream. The milk is packaged on site, and all the cream is made using traditional methods in the farm's dairy.

The organic milk produced on the farm is significantly richer in nutrients than that from conventional dairy farms thanks to the cows' alfresco diet.

"Our cow feed suppliers assure us that there is strictly no use of genetically modified products," Julia said. "We are careful not to use any sprays, herbicides or pesticides, and we rely largely on homeopathic remedies."

With 120 acres of farmland, the cows also have plenty of countryside to roam around in.

Julia said: "Because we keep our free-range cows happy we can then get the maximum amount of milk out of them. We try to give them everything that they could possibly want; lots of space and free access to silage."

Dunn's Dairy was one of the first to introduce a new type of robotic milker that allows the cow to choose when it is milked. Julia said: "We have two of these robotic milking machines and they are quite revolutionary because they pioneer what industry insiders call freedom milking."

The machines are set up in a feeding shed which cows can wander in and out of, 24 hours a day. While the cows are feeding, the machine reads their individual collars to tell exactly where their teats are positioned and then extracts the milk.

Julia said: "The cows are never in any pain and these robotic milkers are much more effective than doing it by hand, although it took a while for the cows to get trained into the routine. Ultimately it has been more popular with them as they tend to think with their stomachs."

The turnaround at Dunn's Dairy from cow to milk bottle is a one-day-process.

Julia said: "Our milk is likely to have been inside the cow the previous day — you can't get much fresher than that."

Dunn's Dairy products are sold all over the county in independent food shops and garages. It also runs a regular home delivery milk round service. Julia said: "This is a part of the business we are hoping to expand on. We have seven vans and deliver milk and cream direct to people's doorsteps in Exeter, Okehampton and Chagford. We offer our customers a good, honest service."

There is also a small farm shop on site that stocks the dairy's produce and other goodies, including free-range eggs from a neighbouring farm. Julia said: "The farm shop has evolved. It started off as a venue to showcase our own goods but since there are no other shops nearby we have ended up catering for the local people. We try to get in whatever they need on a regular basis."

Dunn's Dairy also runs a post-away service for its cream which means it can be sent anywhere in the country.

So what does the future hold for Dunn's Dairy? "I'd really like to get a website off the ground," said Julia. "And we are starting to develop our own butter, so that should hit the shelves sometime soon. As long as we keep the cows happy, that is the main thing."

For more information call 01647 231452.