BOUNDING out into their fields, these cows are the epitome of happiness.

Away for the winter, Acorn Dairy's herd have this week been released onto their Spring pasture.

The business is located at Archdeacon Newton, near Darlington and packs 20,000 litres of organic milk a day four times a week, serving the northern counties to places as far afield as Manchester.

"The cows are in the sheds because it is too cold for them to be outside during the winter, the grass doesn't grow and they prefer a nice, good quality silage," explained Caroline Bell, company director.

"We make organic silage here on the farm and they eat that in their nice, roomy sheds over the winter, but as soon the grass starts to grow, everyone wants them outside, including the cows themselves.

"This Spring has been the latest in memory for us - and we have been dairy farming since the '20s - because it has been so cold and so wet.

"If they had gone out any earlier they would have damaged the fields and, because the grass isn't growing, there is no sweetness to it and they won't eat it."

The 400 dairy shorthorn cross have been inside since the end of the first week of November.

"That is unseasonably late," said Caroline. "We have had a really good Autumn followed by a bad Spring."

Caroline said the turn out videos have become a tradition.

"Cows are very gentle natured and over the winter get used to being in their sheds and with their small group of friends. When we turn them out they are all of a sudden in a much larger group again and they are with cows they have been looking at across the shed over the winter," she said. "It is pure joy. In that group you have mothers and daughters, so it really is a joyous occasion. You can see them banging heads and that is them working out who is the strongest - there is always a lead cow in every group.

"The same cow will always be the first in the parlour or the first up for feed. When you put them in a larger group they have got to sort out who is who again.

"We put our videos up to highlight the benefits of organic milk because organic cows have to go out to grass. Increasingly as people drive around the countryside they don't see cows grazing in the fields because it is cheaper to produce milk by keeping cows in the sheds and bringing the feed to them.

"Organic standards recognise it is a cow's natural behaviour to be outside grazing. So if the conditions are right, organic cows must be out grazing. It's a big welfare matter."