Project Detail

A Dairy Story

David and Wilma Finlay standing together in a farm building
A young dairy calf sleeping on grass with adult dairy cows in the background
Two young dairy calves suckling from buckets, archive footage from 2012
A dairy cow grooming her calf at Rainton farm
The late Wilma Finlay surrounded by cows and calves
Wilma and David Finlay with the dairy cows and calves of Rainton farm

Synopsis

Every day, thousands of dairy calves are separated from their mothers at birth. A DAIRY STORY follows Wilma and David Finlay as they risk everything to find a way to keep dairy cows and their calves together.
Filmed over two years, we see Wilma and David’s determination to reinvent dairy farming; challenging industry norms by putting nature and animal welfare first. Their path wasn’t easy. They faced criticism and ridicule from their intensive dairy neighbours and almost went bankrupt proving it could work.
When Wilma receives a terminal cancer diagnosis, their mission to encourage wider industry adoption of their cow-with-calf system takes on new urgency.
This documentary addresses themes of connection and mortality, and topics of animal sentience, the environment and system change. Following calves from birth to weaning, we see the herd's profound capacity for maternal care.
A DAIRY STORY shows how changing a farming system changes everything; from the lives of the animals to the wellbeing of the farmers, and perhaps even the future of dairy farming itself.
Official Selection IndieCork 2025 - World premiere
Official Selection Central Scotland Documentary Festival 2025 - UK premiere

Details

Year
2025
Type of project
Features
Running time
78 min
Format
4k
Director
Ian Findlay 1st Feature
Producer
Lorna Young
Editor
Ian Findlay
Screenwriter
Lorna Young
Director of Photography
Ian Findlay
Sound
Ian Findlay
Composer
Finlay Harrison, Lewis Findlay
Principal cast
With contributions from: Wilma Finlay, David Finlay, Charles Ellett and Ruth Layton
Archive Footage
Bruce McKenzie
Archive Footage
Sid Ambrose

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Laverock Productions Ltd

2 Academy Street
Dumfries
Dumfries and Galloway
DG1 1BY

Page updates

This page was last updated on 15th January 2026. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

A black and white archive image of Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar with a woman Erwin W. Wyrsch: The Photo Journalist

Director: Mark Forbes

Year: 2021

Erwin Wyrsch is a retired Swiss photo journalist from 1960's to 1990's where he met Peter Fonda, Billy Idol and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Erwin brought the idea of a Motorcycle Benefit event, based on the model of the American love ride, to Switzerland. He believes the art of taking a photo has been lost in the modern world. He spends his senior years restoring his convertible vintage Lotus in his friend's garage in Switzerland.

A woman paints on a large canvas in bright colours The End of Times

Director: Luca Anzalone

Year: 2026

Caught between her indigenous Buryat roots—where art is a shamanic window between worlds—and a Western market that treats culture as a commodity, artist Yuma Radne constructs a monumental canvas to confront the psychological distortions of colonization at the edge of an irreversible era. "Either you make art, or you suffer. It’s like a curse." For painter Yuma Radne, the act of creation is not an aesthetic choice, but an ancestral code carried in the blood. Moving from a remote Siberian village to the high-stakes European art world, Yuma finds herself navigating a surreal landscape where sacred cultural identity is rapidly converted into a luxury product. Through intimate studio dialogues and raw philosophical reflections, the film captures the gruelling physical and mental labour behind her graduation masterpiece, The End of Times. Centred around a gargantuan erupting booze (a traditional Buryat dumpling) mutated into an absurd, monumental symbol of a colonised and erased national identity, the film transcends a typical artist portrait. It becomes a vital, cosmic meditation on why humanity continues to create art in the face of systemic collapse—and a powerful testament to an indigenous culture refusing to be reduced to a souvenir.

A lady with white hair sat in a chair talking with a customer surrounded by fabrics Tobias and the Angel

Director: Mark Forbes

Year: 2021

Tobias & The Angel are famous for their shop in West London where all the different aspects of what they do that are combined to make it feel like home. The shop is owned and run by Angel Hughes and has a story to tell about her family beginnings.