Home›Commodities›Agriculture›Duke of Westminster’s farm backs circular farming to c…

Duke of Westminster’s farm backs circular farming to counter climate shocks

Grosvenor Farms said heatwaves and fertiliser shortages have squeezed British dairy, while oversupply this year has driven milk prices down by as much as 50%.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Agriculture

Grosvenor Farms, part of the Grosvenor empire managed by the Duke of Westminster, is using circular farming and biomethane initiatives to help its dairy operation cope with escalating climate and supply pressures, The Guardian reports. The outlet describes the Lea Manor Farm dairy near Chester as heavily exposed to extreme weather and input constraints facing UK agriculture.

The farm’s challenges include a run of heatwaves, with another expected this week, as well as fertiliser shortages attributed to the Iran war. Brexit-related worker scarcity and disease pressures have also compounded the difficulty of farming, the article adds.

Milk prices, which Mark Roach, managing director of Grosvenor Farms, described as cyclical, have fallen sharply due to oversupply. Roach said higher farm-gate prices last year encouraged expansion of UK production, and that oversupply in the UK and overseas led to milk price reductions of up to 50% this year.

Lea Manor Farm employs 77 staff and runs 2,600 Holstein friesian cows, producing more than 34 million litres of milk annually and supplying Müller and Tesco. The farm covers 4,685 hectares and produces feed crops including wheat, maize, barley and rye, according to the report.

Latest closeWheat $629.25 ▼2.0%

More like this

Sources