Farmers scoop sustainable beef awards

Essex farmer Sam Squiers, of Humphreys Farm, near Chelmsford, won a sustainable beef award – recognising his dedication to sustainable food production.

The Sustainable Beef Farm of the Year award from VetPartners recognises farmers’ role in delivering quality food produced to high standards. Mr Squiers was nominated for the award by vet Mia Ellis.

The farm has 50 native Aberdeen Angus and Wagyu breeding females. Beef is sold direct to consumers online and through the farm shop. Cattle are rotationally grazed on long grass with herbal leys to improve soil quality, biodiversity and animal health.

Soil health

No anthelmintics have been used on the farm for the past seven years. Manufactured fertiliser and chemicals are also thing of the past – encouraging healthier soil and a threefold increase in worms.

“Sam is passionate about educating schoolchildren about the benefits of regenerative agriculture and is constantly seeking new ways to improve his system even further,” says Ms Ellis, who works for Westpoint Farm Vets, Chelmsford.

Runner up was Jim Speirs, from Pepsal End Farm, Luton. He runs a herd of 100 pedigree polled Hereford cattle integrated with the arable enterprise to reduce inputs on the 120ha mixed farm. Cattle graze extensively and are finished on grass too.

The high-health herd is regularly tested for disease and a robust vaccination programme is followed. This includes tag and testing for bovine viral diarrhoea, with bull breeding examinations carried out on 20 breeding bulls sold annually.

“Jim is conscientious, forward thinking and hardworking, and has built a sustainable beef and arable enterprise that work in harmony,” says vet tech Lois Honeywell, who is an approved tuberculin tester at Hampden Farm Vets.