At Stewart Tower Dairy, wonderful gelato-style dairy ice cream is made on the farm in the heart of beautiful Perthshire. You can visit the ice cream parlour, have a bite to eat in the Roundhouse Cafe and pick up something special in the farm shop. They use their own fresh milk to make the wonderful Italian-style real milk ice cream. All the cows at Stewart Tower are Holstein Friesian, which means the majority of the herd is black and white. However, you can also see some red and white Holstein Friesians scattered throughout the herd.
The welfare and comfort of the cows is paramount to everything we do at Stewart Tower, ensuring a peaceful environment for both animals and people. The majority of the farm's activities are dedicated to producing and storing high quality feed for the cows throughout the year. The cows are fed straw, grass, barley and wheat, all produced on the farm. Not only do the cows love it, but it also helps to reduce the carbon footprint and food miles. Stewart Tower Dairy has a range of over 250 ice creams and delicious refreshing fruit ice creams that rotate through the ice cream counter throughout the year. Imagination is the only limit to the flavour combinations. It's the freshness of the milk used that really makes Stewart Tower Dairy ice cream second to none. The milk only travels across the yard from the milking parlour to the ice cream parlour, and the cows deliver it personally every day. During the warmer months of late April to early October, the cows are free to roam and graze wherever they like on Stewart Tower's lush, clover-rich meadows, set against the backdrop of the Perthshire hills. During the colder months, the cows are kept warm in the cow sheds, lying on a deep bed of home-grown straw.
Stewart Tower Dairy works with the Royal Highland Education Trust to host school visits, providing free educational activities and learning opportunities linked to the Curriculum for Excellence. Stewart Tower's products are certified under the various assurance schemes - Red Tractor, Scottish Quality Cereals, Quality Meat Scotland and Sainsburys Dairy Development Group. Ensuring the highest standards of care for the cows and the land is essential to the business. Stewart Tower Dairy has a progressive approach to farming and over the past 20 years has made several changes to the way it produces milk and grows crops on the farm. As a mixed farm with livestock, they are able to adopt a rotational approach to arable and pasture farming. The straw-based animal housing system they use provides manure that can be returned to the soil. This improves soil organic matter, increases carbon sequestration and helps reduce the amount of artificial fertiliser they use. They grow cereal varieties with improved disease resistance. This helps us to minimise the use of chemical sprays. Over the past 15 years, they have increased the amount of clover they use in their grassland. Clover is a very clever little plant, not only do the cows love it, but it also returns essential nutrients to the soil, allowing them to work alongside nature and use less artificial fertiliser to grow grass. Perthshire has an abundance of natural resources, so they decided to make use of one of them. Stewart Tower Dairy has installed a 100kW wind turbine on the farm. Much of the energy it produces is used on the farm and the surplus is exported to the national grid for general use. Wind literally powers everything they do, including making ice cream.