Beef

Calves are bought from local dairy farmers at 10 days old and reared until they are 24 ½ months when they are sold to slaughter and then the majority are sold on to supermarkets.

 

 

 

The cattle are predominantly Friesian or Friesian Cross and brought onto the farm mostly in the autumn. The calves are hand reared until they are weaned at six weeks, they are housed in barns during the first few months and then moved out to grass for the remaining time.

The cattle live outside all year round, in pastures during summer and on dry sandy fields in the winter where they are fed a daily silage mix.

When the calves arrive on the farm a cattle passport comes with each of them. The passport names the farm from which the animal came and there is a section which must be completed by us and sent to the British Cattle Movement Service, this keeps an account of all cattle movements from birth to death.

There is an EU requirement to have double tagging on each animal so we put a tag on each ear. Both tags provide identical information and one of the tags must be of a stipulated size.

The tag shows the country of origin followed by two six digit numbers; the herd number followed by the individual animal's number. The first 3 digits of the herd number show the county (261 for Surrey) and the next 3 show the farm in that county.

Adult animals are weighed to check their suitability for sale and information is stored on computer against each animal's tag number.