Cattle

The beef production unit located at Edgeworthy Farm (situated 1 mile from Menchine Farm) has been operational since December 2019. The project started small with one batch of 50 bulls and the feed was mixed by hand using a cement mixer. Since then, numbers rapidly increased and we now house over 450 cattle at any given time.

From July 2022, we started taking Heritage Steer and Heifers in place of bull calves. These cattle are a slower growing and are a higher quality grade of beef. They are on a different diet consisting of a combination of maize silage and milled barley mix.

We are contract finishers for The Buitelaar Group, who source the calves and arrange haulage for all our cattle. The heritage calves are mainly Aberdeen Angus X and have come from a variety of farms. Calves are 3-4 months old when they arrive with us. All the cattle are housed in ex dairy sheds that we converted to better house them. This is just one part of how we maintain high standards of animal welfare. Great pride is taken in the appearance and good health of all cattle on farm.

A major part of the cattle is their production of FYM (farm-yard-manure). Being the sustainable and economical farm that we are, all waste from the cattle is regularly cleaned out of the sheds and fed into the Menchine AD plant. This results in the beef production unit being a zero-waste finishing system. In return from feeding the FYM into the AD plant, we receive high quality fertiliser which is used to grow barley and wheat in our nearby fields. This is the same barley and wheat that is used to feed the cattle, making the whole process circular.

Since the start of this venture, we have invested in new equipment to help reduce costs and improve efficiency on farm. This first major purchase was that of the ration mill which can produce up to 5 tonnes of mixed feed an hour. The mill allows for a high quality of evenly mixed feed to ensure a high rate of growth is maintained. A grant for the countryside productivity scheme allowed us to purchase parts of a new cattle handling system (cattle crush, weigh bars, EID reader and weigh scale). Combined with us building a new race and handling pens, weighing and medicating large numbers of cattle has been made a lot more efficient and safer.

Furthermore, since the change from bull beef to heritage beef, we have invested in a diet feeder. This evenly and efficiently provides a well-mixed feed to give to the cattle. With the effect of this investment being instantly visible with increased daily liveweight gains.


Aberdeen Angus Suckler Herd

2012 saw the first cows on the farm for the past 25 years.

The herd began with only a few Hereford-Friesian cows and has grown into the 20 pedigree Aberdeen Angus’s seen today. They graze on the steeper fields to the southwest of the farm which are otherwise unsuitable for cropping. Round bale silage for the herd is made in the summer when the Biogas Plant is consuming grassland more slowly than it is being produced.  

When inside for the winter months, they enjoy warm bedding of straw produced on-farm and when turned out in the spring, their muck is put back into the Biogas Plant to repeat this zero-waste cycle. The resulting bullocks from the herd are sold to a local butcher, where the community benefits from the sustainably sourced meat.