Cows are everywhere in the Peak District – all shapes, all colours, all sizes and all varieties. With the glorious shaggy highland cattle littered amongst the moors in the Dark Peak, to the black and white Friesians grazing in the lush green grass of the White Peak, the stunning Derbyshire landscape wouldn’t be the same without them.

They are long-haired and shorthaired, long-horned and short-horned. They have big brown eyes with impossibly long eyelashes and some are so pretty and some are quite fierce! They are mostly such kind, gentle creatures, and it’s wonderful to see them with their heads hanging over the dry stone walls, munching on the grass that always seems to be greener on the other side.

A dairy cow nearly gives 200,000 glasses of milk in their lifetime. They drink nearly 30 gallons of water a day and have 207 bones in its body. They have cloven hooves and if they set off galloping in boggy areas, they can rival a horse in speed. Their toes spread and their wide feet don’t sink do deep as the solid hoofed horse. The cleft toes permit the air to enter the hole in the mud and they’re off like a shot!

The age of the cow is always based on her age when she calves which varies with different breeds. Old wives’ tales say that a cow can even predict the weather.

‘When a cow tries to scratch her ear, it means a shower is very near. When she thumps her ribs with her tail, look out for thunder, lightning and hail.’

The Peak District isn’t known for arable farming as the land itself lends itself to grazing so cows and sheep are about in abundance. Dairy and beef cattle is the mainstay for Peak District farmers and their cows make up the scenery in large numbers. In the Dark Peak, the area of the North covered with bogs and peaty acid soil; amongst sheltered valleys are small farms which can be seen shrouded in mist, the terrain rugged and wild – the cattle there long haired and woolly. Hardy sheep and cattle are allowed to roam free here over large areas, where they feed upon the tough grass and alpine plants growing amongst the heather, bilberry and cotton grass.

Here farmers raise small herds of beef cattle in a handful of tiny fields with a few stone barns as shelter. The limestone areas of the White Peak are a very different story and with larger fields of lush rich pastureland, dairy herds as well as beef cattle and sheep are available in abundance. The meadows and hillsides are covered in wildflowers on land which hasn’t been ploughed or had fertilisers applied.

Since the foot and mouth outbreak, it’s been a struggle for farmers to hold onto their herds, but now they are back in greater numbers. They still have rapidly declining milk prices to contend with. Are becoming more frequent, to buy up farmhouses but to play with the land, owning rare breed cows or leaving their fields fallow and renting it out for summer grazing.

In 1984 the system of milk quotas was brought in to deal with the excess of milk produced which meant farmers couldn’t increase their herds of cows. Many of the small dairy farmers sold their quotas and gave up milk milking altogether and sold their cows to others who bought up the quota and established huge herds. At the time it was thought that 7% of dairy farms were going out of business and in 2007 the number of dairy farms in the Peak District dropped to their lowest levels so far.

Bakewell cattle market has been the centuries the meeting place of farmers who could buy and sell their cattle and socialise. With the building of Bakewell Agricultural Centre, farmers and land managers were able to talk and get advice. The structure of farming in the Peak District is changing and the country scene of black-and-white Friesian cattle grazing in the fields could well be a thing of the past if something isn’t done to help the dairy farmers to survive.

Let’s hope something can be done, because the Peak District wouldn’t be the Peak District, without the cattle dotting about with sheep, making up the countryside. In years to come, let’s hope our children and grandchildren will be able to see and appreciate them – to see Derbyshire as not too different to the place we are lucky enough to see today.