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Upper House Farm, Yockleton near Shrewsbury, England is a calf-rearing and beeffinishing unit, owned by Mr & Mrs Alan Tudor. This McDonald flagship farm covers approximately 400 acres which is used to grow 60 acres of forage maize, 120 acres of winter barley, 120 acres of winter wheat and 60 acres of oil seed rape. In 2008, the farm joined Blade Farming to enable it to develop a more organised and sustainable beef farming operation. The calf unit has recently been expanded to rear 2,500 calves annually. The calves are reared to 84 days of age on the unit, and are then either transferred to the farm’s beef finishing enterprise or to other Blade beef finishing units.

Historically a lot of the black and white (Holstein) bull calves produced by the UK’s dairy industry were exported to continental Europe for rearing on veal farms. Since the 1996 BSE outbreak, there has been a considerable change in this market, with an export ban, disease outbreaks and pressure from civil society who has challenged the ethics of this trade in young calves. Blade Farming’s approach to this issue has been to use their integrated supply chain to source healthy dairy bull calves and to have these contract-reared on farms which are then paid a guaranteed price for every calf reared to 12 weeks of age. Blade now has links with a leading beef purchaser in McDonald’s that are able to buy the forequarter and flank from these animals.

Once the calves arrive on site they are weighed and divided into social groups of the same size, sex and weight band. The calves are then group housed with good space provision, providing- time and labour-saving advantages. Milk is fed through an automatic milk mixing/feeding machine, ensuring milk consistency and constant temperature, resulting in fewer digestive upsets. The group housing also benefits the calves as they are able to facilitate earlier socialisation which can be a benefit in reducing stress associated with changes in
feed and environment post-weaning. Once a group is established they are maintained in this stable group, which reduces the stress associated with continual mixing and regrouping of animals. Lower stress levels reduce susceptibility to infections and also diminish the shedding of infectious agents in infected animals.

A thorough health plan ensures that calves are given the best health care, bringing obvious benefits in addition to the improved hide. Firstly, calves are vaccinated against ringworm (a fungal infection which can cause a characteristic shiny or dull circular lesion on finished leather) and treated for lice and mange (a skin condition which can cause inflammation, with crusts and scabs forming on the skin). Secondly, a strict vaccination policy is followed to control enzootic pneumonia in young linked to BRSV (Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus), Pi3 (Parainfluenza-3 Virus) IBR (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis) and BVD (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea). Thanks to this health plan and vaccination policy, the Tudors have maintained a mortality rate of below 2% (which includes the dairy bull calves). Another important aspect of the health plan implemented on the farm is that all the calves are dis-budded within four to five weeks of age. This is vitally important so that animals sent to other farms dont cause injuries to other animals during transport. A local anaesthetic is used and then the horn
bud is removed by the use of a hot iron.

New buildings on the farm beef unit have been constructed, with a special design to maximise the ventilation and air flow whilst not subjecting the calves to draughts and wide temperature variations. The new calf building provides a well-drained bedded lying area, with water troughs being situated close to the drainage system. This avoids saturation in the bedded area, which in turn would increase humidity within the building, and result in the need for extra straw bedding. All of the animals inded, from calves through to the finishing cattle, are bedded on straw. Straw is a comfortable resting substrate that provides a surface compliant to the animal’s body and that is thermally comfortable, and that keeps the cattle clean. This is very important for the finishing cattle so as to minimise food safety risk, as well as to prevent dung contamination, which causes irreparable damage to hides and affects the quality of the finished leather (in 2004 this was estimated to cost the British tanning industry £20 million per annum).

Finally, the feeding regime is carefully monitored via the Blade Farmworks IT system in the form of food conversion ratios and daily live weight gains. With the other inputs of the system listed above, cattle are able to achieve their performance potential in respect of gaining weight as quickly and efficiently as possible, achieving their target finish weights in the designated timescales. This is crucial to ensure that the economics of the enterprise are sufficient to make a sustainable business.

With these economics and efficiencies come benefits from an environmental perspective, especially in respect of reduced methane and CO2 emissions. One of the biggest impacts of reducing GHG emissions of a beef enterprise is to reduce the time to slaughter. Data supplied by the farm shows that their last batch of continental steers sent for slaughter were 480 days of age and killed out at 324 kilograms deadweight. This is a 212 day reduction in days to slaughter (almost 30%), and even taking into account the extra feed required (due to intensification), a large reduction in the GHG emissions of this system can be assumed. The Tudor farm is also participating in a programme using the world’s most sophisticated on-farm greenhouse gas calculator (developed by E-CO2 and accredited by The Carbon Trust).

Finally, the farm uses a rainwater capture system to provide drinking water for the calves. A 325 cubic metre tank (which was already on the farm) was buried between the finishing and calf sheds prior to resurfacing and concreting the area. By submerging the tank, sunlight is prevented from entering the tank and algal growth in the water is minimised. The water is also protected from adverse weather conditions and will not freeze during the winter months. The main capital investment was in the procurement of a submersible pump which supplies the water to the troughs in the cattle pens, and smaller capital costs were incurred in the laying of pipe work to channel the water from the buildings gutters and for the water pipes from the tank to the water troughs. The system however will save the farm an estimated £2000 (€2200) (based on a water capture volume of 1200 cubic metres). The other positive benefit is that the areas surrounding the cattle sheds do not become saturated with water, reducing humidity levels and providing a better environment for housed cattle. The size
of the collection area and the annual rainfall for the region means the system will collect an estimated 1.2 million litres of water annually. This reduces the amount of water which could be running across fouled yards, or entering dirty water tank/slurry stores, which ultimately would increase the volume of storage required and add to the cost and time of disposal.