UK Feed lots ?
- Thread starter Clive
- Start date
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
I'm guessing weather would be the main drawback. Cattle need extra feed to just to keep going when it's cold and wet. They don't seem to mind the cold so much if it's dry.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
No idea, if i were you id be doing it, saying that plenty got thousands of head now, how many beasts do you need before your a feed lot ?
Suffolk Serf
Member
- Location
- Bury/Thetford
One or two have tried it and end up spending a fortune on concrete- US feedlots only have concrete roadways and in the pens near the feed bunks and gateways.
It works best where there is a dry summer and a frozen winter from what I've seen.
It works best where there is a dry summer and a frozen winter from what I've seen.
im (clearly) no livestock expert but its not really size that defines a feed lot is it ? more to do with being a fenced outdoor "yard" set-up
on light, well drained chalk or sand maybe it could work ?
I expect the EA would not like it
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
Oh, well two or three up here doing it, im going to try it one day, i think it might be the way for spring calving cows, but will have to try it for myself.
Hilly
Member
- Location
- Scottish Borders.
Straw you have accsess to you could easy have 1000 cows with electric fence, use straw stacks as walls.
- Location
- Ceredigion, wales
I think under uk weather conditions it would be cost effective to put some sort of roof over their heads. We used to outwinter some cattle in woodland. They did well but similar cattle that were housed and on the same diet would finish rather than be stores like the ones out in the woods.
YELROM
Member
- Location
- North Yorkshire
As others have said i think wet weather is your biggest problem.
You might keep the cattle clean enough for slaughter in summer but think you would struggle in winter
You might keep the cattle clean enough for slaughter in summer but think you would struggle in winter
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
Pretty sure bloke up Lincoln way been doing it for few years...
Northeastfarmer
Member
- Location
- Cleveland
There is think he has 3000
- Location
- Welshman living in Nottinghamshire
That's how I heard about it, on local news few years back complaints about smell .
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
In the late '80s we kept most of our suckler herd in an outdoor wire corral on straw as we couldn't afford another shed then. The main cattle shed was used for the weaned calves. It worked but was very messy and didn't seem very welfare friendly. I wouldn't go back to it.
And we're in an area with a kind climate
And we're in an area with a kind climate
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
I assume it refers to the whole system of large scale, outdoor, intensively fed cattle with high growth rates.
I thought this was already done, just not on the same scale as the US.
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From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024
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