Operating a circular system

Co-products from the food and beverage industry are a crucial component to dairy and beef diets on one Buckinghamshire farm. Operating a ‘circular system' which utilises co-products makes sense to farm manager Mark Woodin, who aims to integrate every aspect of the mixed farming enterprise at Chilton Home Farms.The slurry and farmyard manure from cattle goes back onto the land to boost soil fertility and optimise crop yields.Grass and maize grown for livestock also acts as a useful break crop against black-grass in the arable rotation, while straw is used for bedding and incorporated into the dairy ration.Staff are also shared across all aspects of the business.Mr Woodin says: "We are utilising and putting everything back into the farm we possibly can." That means all of the beef from the dairy is finished on-farm, with an additional 170 stores also bought-in annually.A sexed and beef strategy avoids the production of lower value black and white bull calves, maximising the income of every calf produced.Co-products produced from the food, beverage and biofuel industries fit neatly within the system.Mr Woodin chooses to feed brewers grains produced as a by-product of brewing, citrus pulp from fruit juice production and processed bread from bakeries.All of these inputs are bought from Duynie Feed.In doing so, he is ‘closing the loop' in the food production chain.In the case of brewers grains and bread, this means a product which was originally grown on an arable farm as wheat or barley is going back to a farm to be fed to livestock.Farmyard manure is then applied back to the arable land as organic fertiliser, creating a circular system.Mr Woodin sees it as getting value from a by-product.He says: "We are using co-products out of UK factories, which otherwise possibly go to landfill or an anaerobic digester.These co-products add variety to the ration without over complicating it." Brewers grains and citrus pulp are incorporated into the 250-cow dairy herd's total mixed ration (TMR).Cows yield 9,500 litres, with milk sold to Sainsbury's.With the farm tending to produce high dry matter (DM) forages, the moist co-products help improve ration palatability and avoid sorting.Mr Woodin says: "Citrus helps with butterfats and I think its palatability helps with intakes.Our grass and maize tend to be quite dry; the citrus pulp and brewers grains add moisture to the diet helping to bind everything together.This increases the total dry matter intake, which helps maximise the use of homegrown forage." He believes the brewers grains and citrus pulp complement each other as the grains drive yields, while the citrus helps butterfats.The inclusion of chopped straw in the diet also helps the butterfat.