Our Story

Welcome  |  Our History  |  Meet The Goodalls  |  The Farm

The Dairy  |  Award Winning  |  Caring For The Environment

TD Goodall is a Yorkshire based, family run dairy that has been producing, processing and distributing milk for over 100 years.

Located in the village of Scarcroft, all our milk is produced by our herd of Holstein Friesian cows. The milk is processed and bottled in our on site dairy and then distributed to the doorsteps of homes in Leeds, Wetherby, Tadcaster and the surrounding villages.

Our aim is to provide a quality product at a competitive price with exceptional customer service.

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Our History

In 1913, at the age of 8, Thomas Dunwell Goodall started delivering milk on his way to school in 2 pint milk churns. This milk was untreated and produced at Fearnville Farm, Oakwood Lane, by his father (also Thomas Dunwell Goodall.)

When Thomas was 14 his father passed away and with his mother's support, he started to help run the farm and delivered milk by horse and cart, using 3 gallon churns which were ladled into customer's jugs.

The family moved from Fearnville Farm to Low Gipton Farm and in 1935 started to distribute milk in glass bottles with cardboard lids.

In 1939, the family moved to Beech Grove Farm, where they have stayed to this day. Thomas Dunwell Goodall had 2 sons, William (Billy) and James (Jimmy), who took over from their father following his death in 1967.

To conform to the ever increasing regulations imposed on the dairy industry, we started to pasteurise the milk in 1981 and now find ourselves to be the only remaining farm still producing and bottling milk in Leeds.

Following Billy's retirement in 1994, Jimmy was joined by his son Edward and they developed the business further, increasing production and introducing plastic cartons in addition to glass bottles.

In 2009, Jimmy retired and his daughter Victoria left the Royal Air Force and joined her brother Edward to continue the family business.

In 2018, Roger (Victoria’s husband) retired from the Army to run The Milk Churn, the latest addition to our already busy farm.

The 4th Generation of Goodalls, Thomas and Olivia, can frequently be found helping out on the farm or in the café.

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Meet the Goodalls

Victoria

Victoria joined the family business in 2009 following a 16-year career as an Air Traffic Control Officer in the Royal Air Force. Her military ethics and attention to detail, while often infuriating for both the staff and her brother, ensure that the business runs as efficiently as possible. She is married to Roger (a former Army officer who now runs The Milk Churn) - they have no children, but lots of pets. They both enjoy anything adventurous and when they get to escape from the farm, they usually try and head to the French Alps.

Edward

Edward joined the family business straight after university and now has many years of experience in the dairy industry. He is very forward thinking and is keen to embrace innovation to improve animal welfare, the environment and the quality of our milk. Edward is married to Samantha and they have 2 children, Thomas and Olivia. When not on the farm, which is fairly rare, he will usually be found on the rugby pitch as a coach or referee (his playing days are now over!)

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The Farm

Our animals are our priority and we use modern technology and embrace innovation to maintain our high animal welfare standards.

Our Animals

We have approximately 230 Holstein Friesian cows being milked each day. In addition, there are about 40 dry cows that are due to give birth soon and another 100 heifers and calves that will eventually join the herd.

We are a Closed Herd

We are a closed herd, which means that we produce all of our replacement calves and do not import cows to the herd, thereby reducing the possibility of disease entering the herd.

No Bull!

We artificially inseminate all of our cows and heifers with specially selected semen. Our heifers (first time mums) are inseminated with sexed Holstein Friesian semen, resulting in a female Holstein Friesian calf which will go on to join the herd. Our cows are inseminated with British Blue semen and will produce a beef calf. Each cow produces a calf every 12 to 15 months.

Our Calves

Our calves are housed in a specially designed calf shed with automatic feeding machines, which replicate feeding from their mother. Once weaned, at approximately 8 weeks, the beef calves are moved to Knaresborough where they are raised by the Voakes family. The female Holstein Friesian calves then join the ‘nursery’, either in the barn or in the fields during the summer months. They will eventually join the main herd after having their first calf at the age of around 2 years.

Robotic Milking

We introduced robotic milking in 2016 and the results speak for themselves.

• The cows are extremely relaxed and calm as they have complete freedom to choose when they eat, sleep and are milked. In the summer months, they also get to choose whether they stay indoors or go outside (if it is raining or too hot, they head inside!)
• The health of the cows, in particular the udder, is greatly improved as the robots allow for optimal milking of each individual quarter (teat.) In addition, as the equipment is washed between cows, any infection is not passed between cows.
• We are able to tailor the diet of each cow to its individual circumstance, taking into account her age, how much milk she is producing and whether she is pregnant or trying to conceive.
• Improved nutrition and udder health results in better quality milk with a lower sematic cell count.
• It is also better for our farm staff as they have more time to look after the animals as they don’t have to physically milk them.

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The Dairy

We use traditional methods in our on-site dairy to ensure that the milk you receive is as close as it can be to when it left the cow.

The Milk

All of our milk comes straight from our own herd and is usually processed within 24 hours of it leaving the cow.

Processing The Milk

All of our milk is pasteurised to 72°C for 21 seconds. This kills the pathogens and extends the shelf life of the raw milk, but it does not change the taste. Apart from our ‘Silver Top’, all our milk is also homogenised – this stops the cream floating to the top of the milk as the cream molecules are disbursed equally throughout the milk.

Cream Production

In order to make semi-skimmed and skimmed milk, we remove the fat from the milk using a centrifuge. The fat (cream) is then made in to Double, Whipping and Single Cream.

Glass Bottles

We bottle approximately 50,000 bottles of milk per week. The returned bottles are all soaked, washed, rinsed and sterilized, which takes about 20 minutes, before being filled by the bottle filler. The filled bottles are then checked before they are placed by hand into the crates.

Milk Cartons

Although the majority of our milk is sold in glass bottles, each week we package approximately 4000 litres of milk in 1 pint, 2 pint, 2 litre and 1/3 pint cartons for shops, restaurants and schools.

Storage

All of our milk is stored in our on-site fridges at a temperature below 4°C ready for collection by the milkmen.

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Award Winning

In 2019 we were proud to be awarded "Dairy Farmer of the Year" at the prestigious Northern Farmer Awards ceremony attended by over 400 people at the Pavilions of Harrogate.

As part of consideration for the award, we produced a video which explains the changes we had made (and are continuing to make) to the way we run our dairy farm.

For more details, please click on the video below.

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Caring for the Enviroment

As farmers we do our best to protect the environment for future generations.

Green Electricity

85% of the electricity used on the farm, in the dairy and in the café is produced on site using renewable sources. In 2011, we installed an 11kW wind turbine and in 2018 we added a 33kW anaerobic digester using cow slurry as its only feed source.

Reduction in Greenhouse Gases

It is a well-known fact that cows produce methane. However, we are reducing the amount that enters the atmosphere by using our cow slurry in our anaerobic digester. The anaerobic digestion process breaks down the organic matter in the slurry to produce biogas (a mixture of methane, hydrogen and carbon dioxide) and a liquid digestate. The biogas is then used to power the turbines to produce electricity and heat our water. We then use the digestate to fertilize the land, without the release of methane into the atmosphere.

Waterways

We have many streams that run through our farm and we work with the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust to ensure the quality of the water, prevent flooding further downstream and create new wetland environments. Areas of the streams have been fenced off and hard standings formed to reduce poaching and prevent run off and erosion. In addition, hedges have been planted on hillsides to slow the rain entering the streams during heavy downpours.

Hedges

We have over 25km of hedges on the farm. As well as providing protection for the cows from the wind, they also provide food and shelter for many species of bird, mammal and butterfly.

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