Don't all cows eat grass?

While this might seem like a silly question to some, the truth is that many cows reared in the UK never get a chance to graze in outdoor pastures. A recent article published by The Times revealed that 15-20% of cattle across the UK, or around 300,000 cows, are kept indoors for their entire lives.

Although the UK has some of the highest levels of animal welfare in the world, there is still an ever-growing gap between ‘free range’ and ‘intensive’ rearing systems. The pressure to provide cheap food has driven parts of the farming industry to come up with quicker and cheaper ways to produce our meat.

Cows and sheep are ruminants and have multiple stomachs designed to break down plant material (cellulose). They graze and browse on various plant materials. In farming terms this is grass, herbs and clovers, conserved grass (hay and silage) and forages such as whole crop maize. This is much more akin to a natural diet.

Cattle that are barn reared for the whole or majority of their lives are fed a much larger proportion of non-grass or forage feeds such as grains (wheat, or barley in particular), food waste such as bread and cakes from factory rejects and soya. These high energy and/or high protein feeds can increase weight gain by 100% in order to reach slaughter weight quicker and therefore cheaper.

This can have negative impacts to the animal’s health and day to day life. It also negatively changes the composition of the fat, making it less healthy to consume. Is a very inefficient way to produce meat and therefore has negative impacts to our environment.

We source beef and lamb from West Country farms that feed their animals on a majority grass and forage diet. We choose farms that farm in a similar way to ourselves and look at each one on an individual basis, they may be free range or organic and this is only one consideration of many when meeting our exacting sourcing criteria.

Farming livestock in a way that matches their natural environments and diet is always going to be the best way, whether it’s for the animals’ welfare, the environment or the health benefits we receive from the meat.