First Milk

Supporting the success of the UK’s leading regenerative agriculture programme in the dairy sector

Supporting the success of the UK’s leading regenerative agriculture programme in the dairy sector

When it comes to addressing climate resilience and the nature and biodiversity crisis, there’s a clear need for action in agri-food supply chains. But without farmer buy-in, it’s hard to make meaningful progress. And, with trust at a premium in many cases, building effective farmer engagement can be difficult.

 

Here’s one example of a business that’s effectively addressing this challenge, and how Twig has helped…

Services:

Reputation Management Farmer Engagement

Sectors:

Livestock Dairy Processing Consumer Brand Engagement

Areas of focus:

  • Strategic PR 
  • Sustainable change 
  • Corporate communication

First Milk

Dairy farmer co-operative, First Milk, recognised the need to address the sustainability challenges it was facing, and created clear commitments to decarbonise and enhance nature and biodiversity. Having reviewed the options, it set a strategy to focus on regenerative agriculture but needed to engage its 700 farmers around this subject. First Milk knew success would involve significant change at farm level, so farmers needed to be inspired to get involved and change farming practices.

Objectives

  • Drive farmer engagement around regenerative farming
  • Inspire real action at farm level
  • Build momentum over time

Our approach

Working closely with the First Milk team, we supported the business with:

  • Bringing their events programme to life, engaging and inspiring farmers. This included farm visits, technical demonstrations, industry event attendance etc.
  • Their direct engagement programme, creating literature to support knowledge transfer, highlight the need for change and promote the benefits of regenerative approaches at farm level.
  • A piece of consumer research to highlight the need for action to a broad group of stakeholders
  • Video creation to engage an online audience

The results

96

%

of farmer members signed up

68

%

increase in regenerative farming scores

85

K

hectares of land received regenerative intervention

First Milk has successfully established the leading regenerative agriculture programme in the UK dairy sector. The vast majority (96%) of its farmer members have signed up to the programme, which scores farmers on the impact they are having through regenerative interventions. They’ve seen a 68% increase in regenerative farming scores since 2022, with 261,340 regenerative interventions being committed in 2024 across nearly 85,000 hectares of land.

“We have a moral imperative to act to protect our planet for the future,” says Mark Brooking, Chief Impact Officer at First Milk. “What’s clear is that the solutions aren’t easy – balancing decarbonisation in the context of nature, biodiversity, food security and protecting rural livelihoods is complex. But we are making progress. Our regenerative farming programme goes from strength to strength. We have momentum. We have a shared sense of purpose. Together, I am confident we will deliver our vision.”

“

I have been delighted to have worked with the Twig team for more than seven years and would highly recommend them. They demonstrate considerable integrity and sound judgement, delivering work to the highest standards. They are incredibly flexible and have real commitment, both personally and as a team - nothing ever feels too big nor too trivial for them. They bring a broad, external perspective, which is hugely valuable, and act as a great sounding board when developing our communications approach. Finally, they are absolutely part of the First Milk family – integrated and connected across the business and working closely with multiple functions. They are respected and valued and there is a high level of trust - people across our business love working with the Twig team.

Shelagh Hancock , Chief Executive - First Milk

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