Pasture for Life

PASTURE FOR LIFE GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

Ten years ago The Pasture-Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) was formed by four farmers in the back room of a pub. Now, with more than 600 members and almost 2,000 consumer supporters, the organisation is looking ahead with confidence and excitement. Sara Gregson reports… The PFLA is a diverse and growing the network “We shall nurture existing groups like community of farmers, butchers, food retailers, academics and consumers, who all champion the regenerative use of grazing animals to produce 100% pasture-fed meat and dairy. More than 100 members are certified • Certification – providing a set of standards that act as a benchmark and developing market mechanisms so that certified products achieve premium prices and certified supply chains are suitable assured those in the South East and Cotswolds and seek to establish additional groups around the country including in the lowlands of Scotland, South Wales, Cumbria, Herefordshire, Wessex, Devon and Cornwall. ‘Pasture for Life’, which means they can use the Pasture for Life rosette in the promotion of their food products. Consumers can be sure the animals their meat and dairy came from only ever ate grass and pasture, no grains. • Collaboration – working with the UK farming community to ensure that pasture-fed principles are at the forefront of agricultural thinking and the PFLA benefits from strong networks with funders and other “Working locally will deliver many benefits, including being able to deliver more farmer-to farmer education, which acknowledges the variations in local traditions, soils, terrain, breeds and climate.

This year has seen the publication like-minded organisations. “Certified producers will be of a new mission and strategy in which the PFLA seeks to encourage Regional groups encouraged to work together to develop local supply chains, identify more agroecological farming methods, Building on a number of existing groups, regional processing hubs and work promoting higher environmental the PFLA is now seeking to support its with butchers and retailers to promote outcomes and animal welfare and the membership at a more local level. The Pasture for Life branded food. production of nutritionally dense food. The PFLA aims to achieve its mission through three strategic pillars: • Culture – spreading awareness of the benefits of 100% pasturefed farming systems, through education, marketing and events, which will bring more people into Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has granted the association significant £250,000 seed-funding to help do this over the next three years. “As the PFLA has grown the collegiate culture of the organisation which developed naturally from the start, will be served better by a regional structure,” says the PFLA’s Jimmy Woodrow. “The groups will also be encouraged to develop relationships with like-minded partner organisations spanning the farming, food and conservation sectors in their areas, such as the Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB.” For more information visit www.pastureforlife.org

Pasture for Life farmer - Case Study Ollie White, Somerset Pasture-farming from scratch Somerset born Ollie White always knew he wanted to farm, but it had to be low cost and low-input as he was working full time out of agriculture and had next to no money.

“I did a lot of reading and came across Joel Salatin’s ‘You can farm’,” Ollie explains. “I was excited about the opportunities for grass-fed meats, stacking enterprises to maximise returns from the land and direct retailing to consumers.”

A UK agricultural costings notebook stated the most profitable pasture-based enterprise to run was geese. So, in 2010 Ollie bought 57 goslings, which he set up on an original 1.6 hectares. He quickly set up a website and with the help of a Google Ads campaign, managed to sell all the birds.

Ollie slowly added 7.3 more hectares and in 2014 he applied for, and was awarded, a 51-hectare Somerset

Ollie White with his girlfriend

County Council farm on a ten-year tenancy, on the outskirts of Ilminster.

After a lot of remedial work and 14km of fencing, Ollie moved his 11 beef cattle, 30 ewes and 250 goslings to Greenway Farm. The predominantly Aberdeen Angus beef cattle are bought as weaned calves to raise and finish on

grass, and the ewes are Poll Dorset x New Zealand Romney. The livestock is outwintered on stockpiled pasture and hay.

He set up the Farm2Fork brand and started to build up his customer base. Apart from the geese, the meat is all sold frozen. This is a critical element of his business model, allowing him to sell meat all year around and not having to fatten and finish animals out of season.

Nuffield scholarship In 2015 Ollie won a Nuffield Farming Trust Scholarship and went to see many grass-fed businesses in America including Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm.

On his return, he created a new enterprise of pastured chickens using mobile pens, rearing and selling 225 chickens that year. Now, demand has pushed chicken numbers up to 5,000 birds. This year has also seen the launch of a pastured turkey enterprise using the Salatin-inspired Gobblygo mobile turkey roost.

Having developed a successful mail-order model with customers nationwide, last year Ollie set up an on-farm shop with a self-checkout and collection point. This takes away the cost of delivery – but also brings the public to the shop where they can better connect with the farm and the food journey.

In 2019, Ollie ran 65 beef cattle, 120 breeding sheep, 500 geese, as well as the 5,000 chickens. Greenway Farm is currently converting to organic status and Ollie is also a member of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association – selling his sheep under the Pasture for Life accreditation.

Ollie White's sheep with his two guardian dogs

“Online consumers are looking for labels they can trust,” says Ollie. “Covid-19 has really boosted online sales.”

While Ollie’s business is doing really well, he admits that the financial realities of developing a food business from scratch, do worry him.

“I had to take on debt early on in the business and having adequate cash flow has always been a challenge,” says Ollie.

“We have been increasing farm productivity and sales, with annual turnover doubling in some years since 2014. UK consumers are definitely now looking for pastured food products and I do believe I am going in the right direction.”

Ollie’s website can be viewed at www.farm2fork.co.uk

Pasture for Life farmer - Case Study Andy Rumming - Wiltshire/Gloucestershire

Andy and Richard Rumming

Grazing cattle bring multiple benefits The Rumming brothers work with their father and uncle on their integrated beef business, which has seen financial returns per animal more than double after just four years.

The farm business supports six partners and three generations at two farms, eight miles apart covering 153ha. The River Thames runs through the farm and the soils are predominantly heavy clay overlaying gravels.

While not certified organic, no artificial fertiliser has been applied for 15 years. The grassland ranges from highly species-rich hay meadows to ‘improved’ pasture.

“I used to be disappointed that our 100% grass-fed cattle were selling as heavy stores for as low as £700 at the livestock market at 30 months of age,” says Andy. “This seemed such a waste.”

Andy and his brother Chris, already had experience of producing, processing and direct marketing free-range turkeys at Christmas. For this they had built a basic butchery and installed fridges in the old milking parlour, but these were only used for two weeks in December.

“In June last year we started to age, cut and pack beef animals in-house. We are lucky to live near to an affluent customer base and 80% come to the farm to collect freshly packed meat. Using a Mailchimp email is our key route for generating sales with most beef pre-ordered.”

Four years ago, Andy joined the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association (he says this is the best thing he ever did) and benefited from attending study group tours and taking part in the on-line forum.

Cattle and data Eighty-five cross-bred cows are put to a pure-bred Stabiliser bull or a pedigree Hereford bull. The cows calve in two groups in spring and summer and are super fertile with 100% regularly scanned in-calf. The aim is for 96% of calves to be weaned per cows and heifers put to the bull and this is often achieved. Calving is at two years of age.

“I like data and my favourite metric is looking at percentage of bodyweight weaned standardised to weaning at 200 days,” says Andy. “The target is 50%. Neither herd has achieved this as a group, although individual cows have. No creep feed is fed and the animals are sold as 100% grass-fed under the Pasture for Life logo.”

Andy Rumming's cattle mob grazing

The spring and summer calvers are cell grazed, moving completely every day with mobile water and Kiwitech semipermanent lanes and temporary dividing fences. The heavy soils mean animals are housed from November or December to the beginning of April and fed just on silage and hay.

Straight after weaning, all youngstock is moved to Andy’s brother’s farm where Chris runs a rotational grazing system with 80 to 100 cattle at any one time. Finished cattle are now slaughtered at 18 months to two years at a carcase size of approximately 305kg for heifers and 335kg for steers.

“Direct retailing is not easy and we have to employ a butcher to break the carcasses down,” says Andy. “But the returns are much better than the £700-£1100 for stores we get. We are adding value with retail income of up to £2,500 or more per animal.”

Visit Andy’s website at www.andyrummingbeef.co.uk

Regional groups will deliver locally based farmer to farmer learning