Deadline to end bull calf culling

The Soil Association has given its organic milk producers a deadline for ending the practice of shooting bull calves at birth.

The move threatens to cost money for some farmers in the hard-pressed sector but will give another push to the effort to find markets for dairy herd bulls and increase pressure on the industry to end calf culling altogether.

The Soil Association has decided to end the practice within five years and has asked its farmers to draw up transition plans from January 2010.

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Phil Stocker, director of farmer and grower relations, said: "Most of our members agree that culling and disposing of young calves is wasteful and a symptom of an unsustainable farming system.

"The change is also in line with the government's food security agenda and calls from animal welfare organisations."

He said many farmers were already pursuing alternative strategies – breeding animals better suited for beef as well as dairy and/or helping to grow the market for so-called 'ethical veal'.

A free Soil Association event covering the obstacles and opportunities available to producers, processors, retailers and others, will take place on January 28 at Chard, Somerset.

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For details call Astrid Toner on 0117 914 2400 or email [email protected]/

Tom Rawson of Clever Cow Organics at Thornhill, Dewsbury, said this week he had been culling calves from his Holstein herd until last year but demand for beef meant he was currently able to sell them.

He said: "Unless you can get a bit for them, a rule like this is just an extra financial pressure on organic producers, who are dealing with a milk price 7p lower than it was last year, because of the recession."

His own certifying organisation, Organic Farmers & Growers, has not yet imposed a similar rule and the Soil Association is apparently hoping organic buyers will seek out milk with its particular stamp on.

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Upmarket organics supplier Abel & Cole is one source. But most of it is sold through the organic milk suppliers' co-op, Omsco, which pools milk.

In the mainstream milk market, some big buyers are trying to help their suppliers to find alternatives to bull culling.

Asda, for example, subsidises the use of sexed semen in AI, so breeders can choose what kind of calves they get.

But there is a view that the issue is more about public sentiment than animal welfare, because the calves will eventually be slaughtered anyway.

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