By Amanda Crawford

THE UNSUNG hero at an Ayrshire dairy has returned to her roots and followed in the footsteps of her father to become a dairy farm assistant.

Julie Miller, 42, is a carer turned Farming Assistant at Dunlop Dairy in Stewarton.

Julie said: “I was a farmer’s daughter and I was actually a carer for a long time. I’ve been here for nine years now.”

Despite the farm having just a small, low yielding herd, the team is happy champion sustainability and expresses the farm’s commitment to being environmentally friendly where possible.

Julie said: “Ann gets all her things recycled, she has changed the packaging, so now we have less packaging tries to change the packaging. She re-uses everything and everything in the tearoom, if it can’t be reused there then she will take it home and use it in the house.

“If something goes wrong with a batch of cheese and they can’t sell it, they will give it to the pigs. Everything here can be and does get used.”

The team works every day and every weekend to keep up with the production of their Michelin-Star cheese.

Ann Dorward, 60, started the business after dreaming of becoming a farmer. She said: “I wanted to farm, and we have ended up making cheese most days, but it’s the only way to keep the farm viable.”

The popular dairy is one of just three cheese making dairies in Scotland. It has just 13 cows in its herd, compared with an average of around 209 per herd nationwide.

It and uniquely, manually milks and pasteurises to produce its award-winning cheese.

Ann has run the cheesery for four decades and attached is the Tea Room open Wednesday to Sunday.