Welsh dairy farmer and consultant Anna Bowen NSch 2021 has published her Nuffield Farming report entitled 'Cow calf contact: Dairy's ethical future?', sponsored by the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust.

Hailing from Ceredigion in Wales, Anna travelled throughout the UK, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Chile, United Arab Emirates, Australia and New Zealand.

For her study, Anna set out to understand how to manage cow calf contact (CCC) systems and whether they are viable in the UK, as well as learn how the dairy sector can produce beef that meets the needs of the red meat supply chain. Taking a unique approach to the subject, she also explored social license and ethical learnings from the horse racing industry, and combined all of this with dairy beef marketing to create a profitable and ethical future model for UK dairy farming.

In her executive summary, Anna said: "Visiting these farms showed that CCC farming can be viable across different systems, but it needs careful consideration of management and necessary investment. Further research is needed both in an academic and a farm setting.

CCC is not a silver bullet solution to dairy's social licence challenge.

"There will still be practices flagged as problematic and the industry will need to constantly adapt and improve to survive. Furthermore, CCC farming cannot rely on the practice alone to give it social licence and high welfare status; there has to be a focus on maintaining good core standards of dairy farming."

Study objectives

• To understand how UK dairy farmers can produce dairy beef calves that meet the requirements of the red meat supply chain from farm to fork.
• To understand how to manage cow calf contact (CCC) dairy farming and identify whether it is a feasible option for the UK dairy industry.
• To identify social licence and ethical learnings from the racing industry that can be applied to dairy farming.
• To combine these aspects with dairy beef marketing into a profitable and ethical future model for UK dairy farming.

 Messages

• Cow calf contact systems can be financially viable on commercial dairy farms but further research is needed.
• There are different CCC systems and they have different challenges and opportunities.
• CCC is not a silver bullet solution to dairy's social licence challenge.
• CCC offers mental health benefits to animals and people.
• The racing industry has taken financial and cultural ownership of ex-racehorses to drive demand and create a market, the dairy industry may need to accept the economic cost of dairy beef calves as part of its licence to exist.

The full report is now available on the Nuffield Farming website at www.nuffieldscholar.org/reports or can be downloaded directly at https://bit.ly/3L2ms94.  

Anna will present her findings at the 2023 Nuffield Farming 'Super' Conference, held at Sandy Park near Exeter from 14-16 November. Tickets and additional details can be found on the Nuffield Farming website, and the event is open for all to attend.