CONSTRUCTION
HEALTHY RETURN ON INVESTMENTS Climate change has been foremost in our thoughts for much of 2021, with the COP26 event that began in Glasgow on 1 November focusing the world’s attention on the environment and how we human beings are affecting it. For many, the doom and gloom around higher global temperatures, heavier rain and more extreme weather events in general provided more ammunition for the anti-livestock lobby, with a multitude of voices calling for global meat and dairy consumption to be greatly reduced. While, regardless of the often misjudged and ill-informed criticisms it faces, the meat and dairy industry is not about to capitulate, there are good reasons why it needs to look carefully at how it operates and modernise its approach in order to
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reduce its environmental impact. A recent article published by the Rural & Industrial Design & Building Association (RIDBA) pointed out that the UK livestock sector “has world class nutrition, genetics, tech, management and personnel, but the average productivity is dragged down by a very long tail of below average productivity on other livestock farms”. The article, by Livestock Consultant Jamie Robertson, said one of the reasons behind the poor performance was a lack of investment in buildings, and said those who complained that they didn’t have the money to invest needed to look at examples that showed a healthy return on such investment. Mr Robertson backed up his point by suggesting some farms “look equivalent to a haulage business
in 2021 trying to compete using a Ford Anglia van and a Bedford TK”. The article suggested investment in buildings would only proceed if the farmer, the builder, the lender and the planning consultant lined up the arguments and delivered a convincing case, adding: “The building sector has a major role to play in getting the other parties invested in a more sustainable future, not least because many of the other parties do not have the required knowledge to set out a project plan that is convincing to detractors.” Any new building, particularly in the current climate, should improve food conversion efficiency – a measure of how effectively animal feed is converted to human food. According to the well-respected RIDBA, “a standard, measured >>
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