A Review of Beef Production Systems for the Sustainable Use of Surplus Male Dairy-Origin Calves Within the UK

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorRutherford, Naomi
dc.contributor.authorLively, Francis
dc.contributor.authorArnott, Gareth
dc.date.accessioned2021-04-29T14:22:37Z
dc.date.available2021-04-29T14:22:37Z
dc.date.issued2021-04-27
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 29 March 2021; Published - 27 April 2021en_US
dc.description.abstractThe UK dairy herd is predominantly of the Holstein-Friesian (HF) breed, with a major emphasis placed on milk yield. Subsequently, following years of continued single-trait selection, the beef production potential of dairy bred calves has declined. Thus, male HF calves are commonly seen as a by-product of the dairy industry. Limited markets, perceived low economic value and high rearing costs mean that these surplus calves are often euthanised shortly after birth or exported to the EU for further production. Welfare concerns have been raised regarding both euthanasia and long distance transportation of these calves. Furthermore, total UK beef consumption increased by 8.5% from 2009 to 2019. Thus, in light of this growing demand, beef from the dairy herd could be better utilized within the UK. Therefore, the potential for these calves to be used in a sustainable, cost-effective beef production system with high welfare standards within the UK requires investigation. Thus, the aim of this review was to evaluate both steer and bull beef production systems, examining the impact on performance, health, welfare, and economic potential to enable a sustainable farming practice, while meeting UK market requirements. The principal conclusions from this review indicate that there is the potential for these calves to be used in UK based production systems and meet market requirements. Of the steer production systems, a 24 month system appears to achieve a balance between input costs, growth from pasture and carcass output, albeit the literature is undecided on the optimum system. The situation is similar for bull beef production systems, high input systems do achieve the greatest gain in the shortest period of time, however, these systems are not sustainable in volatile markets with fluctuating concentrate prices. Thus, again the inclusion of a grazing period, may increase the resilience of these systems. Furthermore, production systems incorporating a period at pasture are seen to have animal welfare benefits. The main welfare concern for surplus dairy bred calves is often poor colostrum management at birth. While in steer systems, consideration needs to be given to welfare regarding castration, with the negative impacts being minimized by completing this procedure soon after birth.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was jointly funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for Northern Ireland and AgriSearchNI.en_US
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/250
dc.identifier.citationRutherford, N. H., Lively, F. O. and Arnott, G. (2021) 'A Review of Beef Production Systems for the Sustainable Use of Surplus Male Dairy-Origin Calves Within the UK', Frontiers in Veterinary Science. Frontiers Media SA, 6. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.635497en_US
dc.identifier.issn2297-1769
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2021.635497
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherFrontiers Mediaen_US
dc.rightsCopyright © 2021 Rutherford, Lively and Arnott. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.en_US
dc.subjectHolstein,en_US
dc.subjectsteer, bullen_US
dc.subjectconcentratesen_US
dc.subjectwelfareen_US
dc.subjecthigh inputen_US
dc.subjectlow inputen_US
dc.subjectpastureen_US
dc.titleA Review of Beef Production Systems for the Sustainable Use of Surplus Male Dairy-Origin Calves Within the UKen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dcterms.dateAccepted2021-03-29
dcterms.dateSubmitted2020-11-30

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
A Review of Beef Production Systems for the Sustainable Use of Surplus Male Dairy-Origin Calves Within the UK.pdf
Size:
292.42 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Final published version
Download

Collections

Journal Articles