Still the storybooks persist with the image and so does Holden. I wonder if he’s trying to atone for doing his own bit to fuel population growth? He laughs. His drive comes from a desire for food security and resilience in the supply chain, not from breeder’s guilt. Everything Holden talks about with the Sustainable Food Trust is trialled on the farm. And so – in the antithesis to the vogue for industrialised systems that permanently house cows – the Holden herd of 85 Ayrshires is fed on homegrown peas and oats grown in the final, exploitative phase of the rotation. I have to say they are lovely cows, even Mrs Goggins who does her damndest to avoid going in for afternoon milking, resulting in a rollocking from the herdsman. Her calf is waiting and, understandably, her instincts are telling her he’d like her milk. It’s a reminder that even ‘nice’ farming is exploitative in some senses