Beef Unit

The unit is an intensive finishing system with the capacity to house up to 70 cattle at one time, the cattle supplied to the beef unit are all home-produced from our dairy unit as the cattle are a dairy x beef breed (predominantly a British Blue sire), this reduces the risk of buying in diseases into our beef unit and adheres to the farm biosecurity policy. The beef calves join the unit once they have been weaned from the youngstock unit, usually in batches of five. They go on a transition diet of grass, maize, straw and a protein blend alongside weaner pellets until they have fully transitioned onto the beef Total Mixed Ration (TMR) diet. 

Each pen within the beef unit can comfortably accommodate up to 5-7 animals per pen (depending on calf size) through to finishing weights. The same animals will remain in a group as we avoid mixing them to reduce the incidence of stress and possible fighting, also to avoid problems when heifers come into oestrus. We do not keep entire male cattle on site due to the implications of health and safety and the risk they may pose to staff and students, as well as avoiding any unwanted breeding mishaps!

The practice of stocking the beef unit with home-produced beef calves supports our mission to reach net zero by 2030, as it allows the farm to produce beef with a low carbon footprint. The unit works closely with academic staff specialising in animal productivity, and the focus has been on improving the production efficiency of the unit by assessing the replacement of concentrates with silages in the diet and the effects of nutrition on the frame growth of cattle. As an addition to this collaboration with academic staff, the unit has introduced Aberdeen Angus cross cattle in 2025 to establish an outdoor finishing system, the carbon footprint of both the indoor and outdoor systems will be conducted and evaluated annually.

All our cattle are bred using Artificial Insemination (AI), we can use this practice as several members of staff on the farm are fully trained in AI, and the dairy herd fertility figures are very successful. This gives us the flexibility to use specific bulls for commercial and trial work as requested by commercial partners or the academic team. With careful planning, we can breed cattle to suit a study, such as Angus x calves for a grazing trial or British Blue x calves for a high protein finishing diet trial.
Our most recent introductions to the beef unit are INRA95 cross, Pathenais cross and Charolais cross calves. 

Some of the buildings in the beef unit are part of the Home Office licence facilities, and as such, we can carry out Home Office procedures under ASPA for beef research studies. We also carry out many commercial studies which do not require work to be done under Home Office conditions. There is a cattle handling unit next to the beef unit, which can be used to safely weigh and treat cattle when required. Most cattle are weighed weekly, and the data is available for students to view and be used as a farm management tool, as the weights can be easily compared to the animal, as all beef cattle have EID tags, which are linked to a reader and a wand to record data automatically.