Dairy bull farms urged to make £100m more

UK producers are missing out on £100m in extra income from dairy bull calves by shooting them at birth or failing to rear them to the right quality, a new report has claimed.

The number of dairy bull calves shot at birth on farm in Great Britain has fallen 36% since 2006 to 54,670, according to the Beyond Calf Exports Stakeholders Forum.

But despite the forum’s efforts to increase the uptake of dairy bull calves into the beef and veal supply chain, income was still being lost to the dairy and beef market, Robert Forster, a forum advisor and former CEO of the National Beef Association, warned in the report. “Holstein bull calves, providing they are sufficiently strong and well managed, have the potential to earn the UK and its dairy beef sector at least £100m more each year.”

Some dairy bull calves shot at birth are killed because they are on TB-restricted farms, so cannot be transferred to rearing units for fattening. A further 50,000 calves are reared but fail to achieve full market value because of their quality. To reduce the number of calves slaughtered at birth, Foster said improving transfer from TB-restricted farms and improving Holstein cow quality would help, as would encouraging breeders to feed calves and sell them for rearing “instead of reaching for the gun.”

The report estimates that since 2006 - when Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA set up the forum - the number of dairy bull calves going into the British supply chain (and not killed on farm) rose 58% to 390,140. It has now closed but stakeholders will review progress in three years.

“Together, we kickstarted an attitudinal shift in the UK, generating an economic value for male dairy calves where before there was none,” wrote CIWF CEO Philip Lymbery in a blog on the report.

The forum’s progress coincides with greater efforts by retailers and suppliers to create a consumer market for UK-produced veal from dairy bull calves.

For example, last December, Sainsbury’s introduced, under its Taste the Difference label a range of veal-based products from male calves from Sainsbury’s dairy development group farms.

DairyCo estimates 390,140 calves retained in the Great Britain are worth around £351m. “This is a significant improvement in value prior to the initiative,” said a DairyCo spokesman.