Day 23 - Alliance at Invercargill

My day started with an early meeting in Invercargill at Alliance HQ with Murray Behrent.  Murray came to Overbury about 2 1/2 years ago for a farm visit with Randall Parker Foods and after the meeting we exchanged details and I mentioned that one day I would like to visit the operation in New Zealand.  Today was that day.  We chatted for a while about Hoofprint and what benefits there were to the UK farmer in using system like this.  We spoke about lamb sales and marketing around the world and how the global economy is changing the destination of many of New Zealands lamb products and about the rationalisation that has occurred in the meat processing industry since 1990 and how this will continue in the future.

I met up with Hayden again and we headed down to the Lorneville Processing site, locally referred to as 'The Works'.  I was very impressed with the overall scale of the operation being conducted in the plant.  Hayden and I started off recording some lamb tails from a Sainsbury's docking trial, trying to discover if live weight gain is effected by tail docking or not.  Too early for any conclusions but it was interesting to be on the other side of the world and still have a Sainsbury's connection.  Last year Hayden did trials on about 15,000 individual animals.  The processing plant was incredible, running 4 chains (or lines) of lambs.  All of the lambs are stunned and then slaughtered at a rate of 36 lambs/minute which; when all chains are double shifting and woking an extra hour can process 32,000 lambs/day. Lambs are delivered almost 24 hours/day and there is enough pen space in the  lairage to hold about 14,000 lambs.  Teams of shepherds, each with two dogs unload the animals and keep them moving up through the system.   There was a lot going on but it was well organised, calm and relatively stress free which is a good sign.  

Before the lambs go off to be cooled they are weighed and put through a VIAScan.  This very impressive piece of equipment scans the carcase and works out the percentages of saleable meat in  3 main areas and the farmer is paid accordingly.  Measurements are taken from the leg, loin and shoulder.  To me this makes perfect sense; with the farmer being rewarded for more saleable better quality meat that yields more to the processor and should be charged at a higher margin to the customer.  How far away are these in the UK I wonder?

After the lambs are processed they are moved into various chillers to bring the carcase temperature down to -0.5 degrees.  This is done in stages to slightly dry the carcase and slowly bring down the temperature over about 10 hours.  The following day the lamb is butchered in one of the 5 cutting rooms, by one of the 60 boners/butchers before being packed, identified and shipped.  It takes 6 weeks for the chilled produce to reach the UK where is is further processed before ending up on the shelves of Sainsbury's.

I finished the day back at HQ talking to the sales team who work with UK buyers.  We talked about the quality of the product, how it is packaged, processed and delivered and how it really should be a very premium product.  New Zealand and UK lamb should not be competing against each other in the market place but working together to manage the supply of lamb between us to ensure the price stays at a sustainable level.  On farm and processor, efficiencies need to occur to ensure lamb isn't priced out of the market but with efficient producers and a reasonable price, we should be able to return enough money to invest in the future.

I had a really interesting day yesterday, (and I have to say I was very privileged), to be invited to attend the annual trade briefing by Sainsbury's held in London at the Queen Elizabeth II building.  (How that got planning permission I will never know but that's another story!).  The aim of the event is for the management team at Sainsbury's to get their suppliers together and tell them (us) points of interest about past performance, future plans, business development, supplier relationships and how the economy will be affecting everyones business over the coming months.

First on was Justin King, who gave an interesting insight into customers buying habits.  As always a great presentation, and as someone who does some public speaking I really admire!  Justin mentioned the pressure that houshold budgets are under, shoppers are buying less (2% year on year) and wasting less food.  Investment plans were also mentioned with plans to invest £1bn to grow the estate.  Sales, like for like, are up but only slightly at 0.9% excluding fuel, which is better than some competitors.  He also mentioned Sainsbury's own brand labels growing 3 times faster than branded products as more shoppers are looking in more detail about where the pennies go.  We can all relate to that!  Contributions to the performance are coming through from the basics range, Brand Match and Taste the Difference, all backed up with shopper buying habits recorded through the nectar card.  He also mentioned the importance of customer trust in the brand, this is something that resonates with us at Overbury.  Your customers have to trust what you are doing if you are going to keep them and encourage them to engage more with you. 

James Waldon was next up, the IGD's Chief Economist, and again I have to take my hat off to James.  He made economics interesting (wish I had felt that way at college).  He described the economy as the bus teetering of the edge of the cliff in the film The Italian Job.  The gold bullion is the amassed wealth we have borrowed and the weight of that debt could take us (our economy) over the edge.  I hadn't realised but in 1976 the government of the day had to borrow money from the IMF (International Monetary Fund).  We're not that bad yet but things are close.  James talked about the reduction in volume sales in most categories between 2006-2011, except cereals, chocolates, sweets coffee and wine!  That says a lot as well.  Fruit and veg consumption also fell during that time period, are we building problems and cost for the economy in the future?

One of the key aspects of the day I was interested in was the 20x20 Sustainability Plan.  This will involve all of the suppliers listening in the audience and many of their suppliers as well.  I would count us in that list as well.  Being part of the supply chain we need to listen to what our main customer (for lamb) is telling us and be apart of that supply chain.  It's also good to have someone setting targets and goals to aim for.  For instance part of the plan is get 35 of the most commonly used raw materials sourced sustainably.  Sounds easy?  But here is the list: cotton, strawberries, milk, timber, eggs, salmon, citrus, cork, wheat, cod, chicken, leather, apples, peat, pork, coffee, rapeseed, cocoa, palm oil, blueberries, biofuels, prawns, soya, tomatoes, tuna, grapes, haddock, sunflower oil, potatoes, beef, sugar, tea, carrots, paper and finally lamb!

This is no mean feat but one that should be applauded and will only happen with the help of the suppliers and growers.  It was also great to see a picture of me with Alice Swift up on the big screen with our ewes and lambs (bottom left above).  Other main targets this year include, Live Well For Less, 2020, Fit for the Future, Year of the Product and R&D.  We scored highly on the R&D side having two proposals accepted for research work this year.  I will be blogging about sheep lameness shortly, watch this space, the trial has begun.

Lambs Final Journey

On Monday 16th January Tod, Tia and myself set off heading North West into Wales, our destination was the abattoir in LLanidloes where are lambs are sent to be killed.  The trip up took about 2.5 hours and there was lots of discussion about our sheep flock on the way.  These are the same lambs that feature on YouTube here

After signing in and getting to reception we were warmly welcomed by Kevin Brown, who id the Procurement Manager and General Assistant manager for the plant who kitted us up in white coats and trousers, hard hats and hair nets.  We started off our trip looking at the vast warren of fridge space where the sheep and beef carcases were being held whilst they came down to temperature, ready to be transported, for lamb this is maximum of 7 degrees C.  Then we moved on through the lines to where the lambs are humanely stunned and killed which was a very swift and skilled job, expertly handled.  Having been skinned and processed, taking away the intestines, hearts, lungs, livers and having some fat trimmed off, we watched our lambs go along the grading line. Here they are weighed and given their grades for fat and conformation.  Most of that batch (of 123) that went through as R3L's and R3H's and averaged 20.91Kg.  In total the group of lambs yielded just over 2.5 Tonnes of meat and bone!

The picture above was taken of our lambs the following day, showing he confirmation and fat coverage really well. 

It was a time of mixed emotions really to see our own lambs being killed but I was reassured and happy to see how it was done; with a calm quiet humane approach, with skilled friendly staff in a very professional manner.  We also had some time to look at the lairage, which was clean, airy and well set up to handle large numbers of sheep.  During peak production the plant can cope with 5,000 lambs day.  We looked at the skins that were being salted and packed on site, by a third party, many of these skins end up in China and return to the UK in the form of Ugg boots!

The dirty water produced on the whole site, from the washings of the processing lines, to floor washings and lorry washings is all collected, aerated and filtered through reed beds before ending up, after rigorous testing back in the local stream.

It really was a fantastic visit and one that I will repeat again with another batch of lambs.  To see the end result of 10 months of shepherding, ultimately seeing the carcase that will be processed and delivered to Sainsbury's was very satisfying. I would recommend all farmers to go and see this with their own stock, work with the customer to get more efficient at producing what the customer needs.

Dog Worming Reminder

Last week we sent a group of lambs to the abattoir in mid Wales as we always do at this time of the year and when the kill sheets came back I was shocked with some of the results.  It turned out that of the 87 lambs delivered the Food Standards Agency condemned 17 (nearly 20%) livers for something called Cysticercus tenuicollis.  In total the weight loss was 11.7Kg, at £4.50/Kg which equates to £52.65 of lost income, but that's not really my point.

The disease stems from the dog adult tapeworm Taenia hydatigena and is transmitted to sheep when infected dogs shed eggs via their faeces onto the pasture.  These eggs can survive on the pasture for up to 6 months.  Another problem with dog faeces is very similar and is called Cystericercus ovis or sheep measles and is ingested almost identically. (Here's a cyst on a liver)

Once in the sheep the larvae develop and penetrate the sheep's intestine, spreading to various tissues including the omentum, mesentry, peritoneum and liver.  As-side from liver condemnations heavy infestation can cause haemorrhages and peritonitis.  Once the sheep has been exposed to tapeworm eggs, it is impossible to prevent the cysts developing so it really is out of our hands.

In order to reduce the risks we ensure that all of our farm dogs are wormed regularly, this is also covered as part of our Farm Assurance.  We must insure that all visiting dogs are also wormed appropriately, using the correct wormer and using the right dose for weight of the dog.  (Please see your vets about specific products)

With over 40Km of footpaths, bridleways and permissive paths on the farm, many of which run through our grazing pastures it is so important for you, the dog walking public, to make sure your dog doesn't contribute to this potential threat to the welfare of our sheep flock.

These two problems in 2009 cost the English sheep industry £7.5 million (EBLEX Lamb briefing 10/07).

Is The Grass Greener with Sainsbury's?

On Thursday the 19th May we hosted the Sainsbury's Lamb Steering Group Meeting at Overbury.  The group started about a year ago and this was the first on-farm meeting which was a real pleasure to host.  There were about 9 others farmers from all corners of the UK and even Northern Ireland, all farming different systems and producing lamb in different ways, all dedicated to supplying Sainsbury's.  In addition there were people from Randall Parker Foods and Dunbia who are the processors for the producers lamb (We supply RPF- via the Mayhill Lamb Group).  The day started with an update on JS lamb sales over the past year, then we moved onto an update of the Carbon Footprint assessment.  This is the largest study ever conducted assessing the carbon involved with producing lamb.  More about that another day.  After that I did a presentation about Overbury Farms, what we do, how we do it and why.  I talked about our crops, conservation, staff, machinery and then our sheep.

Following on from me was Bob Bevan from AB Sustain who was teaching us about grassland management. 

One of the interesting things learnt from the JS Dairy Group was the attention to detail of grassland management and how carbon emissions and therefore cost can be reduced by better grassland management.  This conversation carried on over a working lunch before heading out to the field for a tractor and trailer ride around the farm.  We looked at 8 fields in total, starting with a hay field, then a silage fields then various permanent pasture fields ending up on the top of Bredon Hill, where Alice and Annie had their photograph taken as shown here!

 

It was a really good meeting, I felt that a lot had been achieved and there was plenty of conversation within the group.  There is a definite opportunity to explore the grassland management here at Overbury, starting this summer with some over-seeding in a couple of fields.

Following the meeting we did a short bit of filming for the JS website all about the Carbon Footprinting and how we are benefiting by working together.  That should be on the website under the Coorporate Responsibility tab on the 7th June.

Watering The Onions

With all of this dry weather we have been asked to start watering the onions. The northerly winds have really dried out the land very quickly, going from muddy wet conditions at the end of March to bone dry conditions in about 3 weeks. These onions were planted about 2 weeks ago and are being watered for the second time already. This watering will help the small seeds to germinate very quickly and there is no real rain on the horizon for at least a week! They are due to be harvested in August. We could really do with some rain, gentle warm rain that is, very soon to help wash in some recently applied fertiliser on the spring barley and to get the grass growing again. The cold nights have also slowed up the grass growth with is not great for the ewes providing milk for the hungry lambs.

Spring Planting Apace

With the recent dry weather, yes it's been dry for at least 2 weeks, last time that happened was in 2003, or so it seems, the land has been dry enough to travel on. Gordon here > is drilling Tipple Spring Malting Barley on Bredon Hill. This is under contact to Coors, via Frontier Agriculture, to go to Burton-on-Trent to be made into Carling lager next year. The dry weather following the frost has given us lots of frost tilth and the seed bed is nice and fine. We put some nitrogen fertiliser into the seed bed before we cultivated it so that it was worked into the soil to surround the seedlings as they germinate to hopefully get them off to a really good start. Gordon is hoping to finish the field tonight before it rains, tomorrow.

On the 11th April we are having our annual Farm Lambing Day. Tractors and trailers will be leaving Overbury village hall, from 10am until 3pm, to take you up to Park Farm to see the lambing for yourselves. The game keeping dept, of Paul, Greg and Rod will also be there to uncover a few of the myths behind the dark and shady underground world of game keeping, accompanied by the stuffed or frozen usual suspects, friends or foe! Lunch will be available to purchase at the village hall from 12 am until 2pm, tea and coffee will be available all day. There is a small charge of only £5 for adults and children will travel free. It is a really super day out for all of the family, so bring them along, no matter what the weather is doing, and we'll be pleased to show you all about the lambing and sheep production here at Overbury. It got very busy last year between 11 and 1, so if you can try and get there early.

First One's Out

At last spring must be nearly here. we started lambing on the 9th on February, in the middle of the snow period and had to keep the lambs and ewes inside for 10 days before they could be turned

out into much sunnier weather. These lambs are down in Conderton and will soon be moved up into the plum orchard, when the grass starts to grow a little. If you want a closer first hand experience of lambing sheep our Farm Lambing Day is on the 11th April this year. Tractors and trailers will be departing from Overbury Village Hall from 10 am until 3pm to take you to the sheep pens.

Field Surfing an Organic Alternative?

This is Derek this morning topping out the yellow flowered Charlock in the field growing stubble turnips and forage rape for the lambs to feed on over the winter. Charlock is a real pain as it belongs to the same family 'brassica' as the actual crop so we can not spray it out. We weed surfer is like a flymo that is carried along behind the tractor trimming of the flowering heads and some of the pods that have already been set. The trick is to get the surfer low enough to cut the charlock but not to low as to damage the actual crop. Some of the outer leaves will be chopped a little but they will recover after the rain we have just had and the warm soil temperatures. The lambs will be running out of grass during October and so they will need to be grazing the turnips in November and hopefully they should last the lambs until March. Anybody know how many grazing days an acre of turnips should last?

Movement at Last

It was a bleary eyed Farm Manager and Shepherd who loaded the first lambs into the sheep trailer at 4.15 this morning. The lambs where the first ones

to be moved after the livestock restrictions had been lifted on Sunday. We can now move lambs directly from the farm to the abattoir. These 44 lambs were destined for Randall Parker Foods in Llanidloes in Powys. They will be on Sainsbury's shelves by the weekend marketed under the 'Cotswold Lamb' label. The trip took about 3 hours and was 109 miles. The sunrise was fantastic so I thought I would share it with you all as you were all still in bed! (Not that I am jealous at all)

Foot and Mouth Disease

Well it's happened again only this time at a very important time for many livestock producers. Over the next month thousands of breeding sheep are due to be sold at auction all over the country. These sheep are born in April and spend the summer grazing the high moor areas of the UK before being brought off the fells and mountains and sold to 'lowland' sheep breeders (like us). These sheep are the main income for many hundreds of hill farmers and go to breed lamb the following year. Cattle farmers will also be weaning spring born calves at this time and they will usually be sold on to other farms for the winter. At the moment there is a complete shutdown on all movements of 'cloven hoofed' animals.

How does this affect us? We can't sell any lamb at the moment, lambs can't be taken to the abattoir and no sheep can be moved across any roads. We can't move the ewes to the stud, where they eat the grass for Simon. This works well for both of us in a normal year. The ewes chew down all the grass that the fussy horses leave. It also gets the ewes in good health ready to be mated. Will we have fewer lambs next lambing? Who knows watch this space.

Did the Government lift the restrictions too early? I didn't realise this but symptoms show in animals after 14 days but the virus can live in the soil, water and forage for up to 50 days!

New Arrivals

Born yesterday at Park Farm Overbury were the first lambs of the season. Triplets from a mule (Swaledale cross Blue faced Leicester)ewe to a Texel sire. The females will be retained and will move into our breeding flock whereas the males will enter the food chain in about 3 months. These guys will stay in at the farm for couple of days so that they can build up strength and make sure mum can provide all of the colostrum and milk required to ward off the cold nights ahead. We like to turn them out into the fields as soon as possible after the lambs are born where disease levels are much less, although close watching of the weather forecasts will determine exactly when that is, at this time of the year.

First try out in the pool at the weekend after some physiotherapy on a dodgy shoulder, no side effects yet! I need to be swimming 3 times a week. Week one the target is 2.9km each time, seems a bit excessive as I have to swim 5km in total. Still I suppose this chap Duncan Goodhew should know what he's on about!

Wet and Wild!

What an end to the year, wet and wild, no not another instalment from America but the weather. It was a strange year with 693mm of rain. Monthly variances ranged from 6.6mm (Jan) and 118mm (May and most of that came in 4 days!) The total was about average but the variation in monthly totals was bizzar! The wettest year since 1990 was in 2000 with 873mm and the driest was in 1996 when 458mm fell, so we were about average in 2006.

These are some of the lambs being fed outdoors between Christmas and New Year, just after a very wet night! They are not happy but putting down some straw put a spring back in their steps. The turnips are running out and as a result we have taken 350 lambs to rear indoors on purchased feed, to ease the pressure of the home grown forage. They should start to be ready to sell from early January onwards.

It's time for a New Years Resolution I guess and it would have to be to remain calm whilst talking to the DEFRA helpline (LOL), about, well anything really! Those of you who have experienced this phenomena will know that the chances of keeping this resolution are, to say the least slim and....I know it's not the person on the end of the telephone's fault, and I know the help books are written backwards, inside out and cross referenced beyond belief, and I also know that the computer always says NO! But lets be optimistic at least until the end of the month!