It’s a long winter away from the fields for the nation’s cow herds.

With the ground too wet for the animals, most spend the winter months in barns and farmyards – but that doesn’t mean they get to stop working.

These beautiful Montbeliarde cows were brought over from France for their milk, which is being used to make a brie-type cheese in the Suffolk countryside.

Farmers Frances and Graham Crickmore, and their son Jonathan and his wife Dulcie, are using the milk to produce Baron Bigod cheese at Fen Farm, between Bungay and Flixton.

They are also selling unpasteurised milk.

Mrs Crickmore, who took the photos of the cows as they were waiting to be milked on Boxing Day, said: “My son is very enterprising and it was his idea to sell the cheese and milk – as farmers we have to think of any way we can to diversify these days. We have been selling the cheese and milk from a vending machine at our gate for about eight months and it is going very well.”