If you love animals and hate the thought of working for hours in the garden cutting the grass with a lawnmower, we have the ideal solution, and it comes in the form of Real Deal Milk’s team of highly-experienced Lawn-mooer’s.

Now and again, we come across one of those “Why didn’t I think of that” ideas, and Real Deal Milk’s Lawn-mooers is one. The innovative cell-based milk startup has launched the world’s first animal gardening service. In simple terms, they will deliver ex-dairy cows affectionally known as ‘Lawn-mooers’ to help maintain gardens by doing what they do best and that is eating grass.

The Real Deal Milk ‘Lawn-mooer’ team comprises ex-dairy cows who have suffered at the hands of the farming industry but will now live a stress-free life grazing whilst helping homeowners keep their gardens tidy.

The company is calling on members of the public who are interested in ditching the Flymo® and welcoming a ‘FlyMoo’ into their life to get in touch. As the ‘Lawn-mooer’ gardening service is an exclusive operation, all potential customers must undergo a strict vetting procedure to ensure they will be suitable for the service.

The ‘Lawn-mooers’ will be delivered to vetted customers’ gardens and left to carry out the grass-eating service right away free of charge. There are many benefits to keeping a ‘Lawn-mooer’; not only do they keep your lawn trim, but their manure is also great compost. Customers will need to feed and water their new recruits and provide accommodation.

To coin a well-known English phrase, “A ‘Lawn-mooer’ is not just for Christmas”, so customers need to commit to employing their service for at least two years.

With the price of milk so low, farmers drain dairy cows for every drop of milk to ensure profits are made. Therefore, cows often live in cramped and stressful conditions*. A ‘normal’ cow could live a happy life for at least 20 years, whereas the lifespan of a dairy cow is just six years**. The ‘Lawn-mooer’ service highlights the value of keeping an ex-dairy cow when their milk-producing capabilities have gone, in the hope, it will encourage a conversation on where cows can go post-dairy farm, that isn’t the slaughterhouse.

Real Deal Milk is a cell-based milk startup founded by Zoltan Toth-Czifra. Real Deal Milk uses precision fermentation and cellular agriculture in a lab to produce the proteins in dairy, casein and whey so that cows are no longer needed. With the ability to help tackle climate change and end animal suffering while providing a lower cost, healthier product, it ticks all the boxes and has been touted as the future of food manufacturing.

Zoltan Toth-Czifra, the founder of Real Deal Milk, said, “Here at Real Deal Milk, our mission is to provide a sustainable solution to dairy manufacturing whilst protecting animals from unnecessary cruelty. Gone are the days where dairy farming was a few cattle grazing in a meadow, only supplying milk to a family or two. The mass production of cows means that they find themselves in a cramped space, living under stressful conditions, so it’s time they retired.

“We’re going to be creating milk-based products without the cows, which is great for the cows, but it got us thinking…What will the ex-dairy cows do after? There’s going to be a lot of them, considering there’s nearly 2 million in the UK alone! So, we thought, why not let them do what they do best and graze all day?”

People interested in hiring a ‘Lawn-mooer’ can apply for the exclusive service online, but they will be vetted and must agree to feed, water and provide accommodation to their new employee.

You can apply to hire a ‘Lawn-mooer’ here: www.realdealmilk.com/moo.

*European Commission. 2017. Overview report welfare of cattle on dairy farms. PDF.
**https://www.ciwf.org.uk/media/5235185/the-life-of-dairy-cows.pdf.

Read more lifestyle news and features here.

Photographs by Natasha Godbold.