Bromstead Farm is a mixed grassland and arable farm located in Shropshire and is a beef research farm for ABP Food Group’s UK operations.
The farm size is 153ha with approximately 200ac located around the farm yard and an additional 180ac located on the north side of the road.
The home bloc of land is mainly in grassland but also features some woodland and wildlife ponds.
Recently, ABP invited a number of media representatives to visit the farm and Agriland was in attendance to find out more about the research taking place there.
A number of ABP representatives were on hand to take questions. These included:
- Bob Carnell: ABP UK CEO;
- Dean Holroyd: ABP group technical and sustainability director;
- Liz Forde: ABP agricultural projects manager;
- Andrew Macleod: Farm manager, Bromstead Farm;
- Professor Jude Capper: ABP chair of sustainable beef and sheep systems at Harper Adams (Livestock Sustainability Consultant).
Every year, the farm purchases four groups of 120 calves originating from the dairy herd to undertake trials on emissions, performance and feed efficiency.
While the calf crop in Ireland is more seasonal, the UK supply of calves are available all year round.
The calves are born on dairy farms and then go to dedicated calf rearing farms until such stage as they are weaned off milk.
From the rearing farms, the calves then arrive at Bromstead. This takes place as part of ABP’s Blade integrated system. All cattle are finished at under 20 months of age and sent to ABP’s Ellesmere site for processing. Cattle are drafted for the factory primarily on their level of finish not target weight.
Farm manager Andrew MacLeod explained: “We try to do it as commercially as we can because there’s no point in doing something that farmers can’t follow. We aim to do things here that other farmers can tap onto and carry on with.”
While the farm is run commercially, a number of new technologies are trialed on the farm which measure methane emissions and investigate ways of reducing the emissions produced from beef cattle.
When Agriland visited the site, the cattle on farm were predominantly Angus-cross cattle however there were other breeds on display too.
There are no slatted sheds on the farm and all pens are dry bedded. Andrew explained that slatted sheds are uncommon in the region and the abundance of straw available means it is the preferred option.
The cattle on finishing trials are bedded on sawdust. This is because if they eat straw it will impact feed efficiency data.
A lot of the work on the farm involves examining the cattle’s genetics and the impact genetics have on certain traits of interest.
Liz Forde, ABP agricultural projects manager noted: “Data is paramount because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Cattle in the finishing trials are weighed every week and the younger stock are weighed once per month.”
All cattle are EID tagged and all data recorded is linked to the animal’s corresponding EID tag number. End-to-end data is collected on each animal from the calf stage right through to finishing and processing where data on the beef quality is also collected.
The aim of the research is to see what genetics and what farming practices perform best from an environmental and financial perspective.
“It’s got to work for the dairy farmer, the calf rearer, the farmer finishing the cattle, the factory and ultimately, the consumer.”
It was outlined during the site visit that cattle populations are declining year on year in the UK. As well as this, the dairy industry in the UK is coming under increasing pressure to produce a calf that is of value and “has a place in the production cycle”.
“Our position here is the most efficient animal is the most profitable animal for the farmer but it is also the most environmentally friendly animal too.”
Farm manager Andrew MacLeod added: “With live weight gain, we can only work on averages because with weekly weighings, they could do 2kg/day and the next week they could be at 0.5kg/day.
“We find they always have three good weeks and one lesser one. When cattle come in to the shed, you have factors like compensatory growth which boosts weight gain also.”
The farm manager also noted the importance of good genetics saying “there is a significant variation on performance, even within breed”.
“The difference between the best and worst genetics is up to 300 kg live weight at finishing.”
Before cattle are sent for processing, data is collected on fat covers through back-fat scanning. The rump, loin, intramuscular and sirloin fat is all identified by the scanner.
Jersey blues
During the farm walk, Andrew showed attendees a pen of 15 month old Belgian Blue cattle bred off Jersey cows. The group of 25 was a mix of heifers and steers. Another 25 cattle from this group were put to grass in the spring to compare the performance. The heaviest animal in the shed group weighed 500kg.
The cattle were all bred from the same Belgian Blue sire which was easy calving and short gestation.
Emissions
The farm currently has two systems for measuring cattle’s methane emissions.
These are:
- GreenFeed bins;
- Zero Emissions Livestock Project (ZELP) collars.
Explaining the systems, ABP’s technical and sustainability director, Dean Holroyd, outlined: “The GreenFeed is a US system. They are feed bins and everything going in and out is measured.”
The GreenFeed bins are designed so that when an animal’s eartag is registered, a small amount of feed drops down every 20 seconds for a duration of three minutes.
This occurs five times per day for three weeks when a clear image of the animal’s methane emissions is formed.
Research from the farm has found up to 100g/day of a difference in methane emissions between different cattle genetics
Holroyd also noted that certian products are well-proven to reduce emissions such as: ” Bovaer, 3-NOP the DSM products and linseed products” however he noted that research would indicate some of the other products to be “a bit more questionable”.
“Some additives work for a while then stop. It’s tricky to prove that things work long term. “
The second tool for measuring methane emissions on the farm is the Zero Emissions Livestock Production (ZELP) collar.
This collar is put on cattle and includes a battery pack and wi-fi. It analyses the cattle’s emissions and neutralises methane , similar to a catalytic converter in a car.
The collar doesn’t impact cattle’s performance and can measure emissions constantly. It can reduce livestock methane emissions by 40-50%.
The data collected from the GreenFeed bins and ZELP collars both correlate equally when analysed.
Commenting on her research, Professor Jude Capper, ABP chair of Sustainable Beef and Sheep Systems at Harper Adams, said that from years of data, “we could predict methane emissions from cattle based on mathematical modelling.”
Capper outlined that from this data, the research aims to “work out the ideal time to finish cattle.
“In the best animals, we could see a 30% decrease in Greenhouse gas emissions per kg of beef.”
Capper added that this was just enteric methane and isn’t a whole-farm carbon footprint.
“If we use these equations to develop tool kits that farmers can use to put in their performance data, they can then have a better prediction of when is the best time to send them to market.”
ABP’s UK CEO Bob Carnell said: “One of the big challenges the industry has is talking positively and proactively to consumers about the quality of beef we have here.
“Getting that message out to a consumer in the street is a challenge but it is a challenge the industry has to take because we have some inherent strengths in this part of the world which we need to get across in a more proactive and positive way.”
“We can’t do it on our own but I am very clear we need to do something on highlighting the positive aspects of beef production in terms of nutritional benefits and environmental benefits,” Carnell concluded.
