It’s not the cow, it’s the how.

It’s not the cow, it’s the how. At Lower Blakemere Farm in Herefordshire our beef cattle come in for winter and are fed on our own grass seed straw, with a balanced barley ration and minerals, before heading back out onto permanent pasture in the spring. That’s a world away from feedlot systems in the USA, where cattle are finished fast on high-grain diets. Here it’s about steady growth, healthy rumens and low-stress management, using what we grow on the farm, closing nutrient loops, and building soil carbon rather than shipping feed and fertility in.

How cattle are fed and managed affects methane, carbon cycling and soil biology. Well-managed grass and straw-based systems recycle carbon through roots, dung and microbes, supporting pasture, storing carbon in the soil and keeping beef production part of a living system, not a factory.