Increased farm resilience and reduced input costs. The results from our regenerative grazing study are out.

Positive results have been seen in terms of animal performance, cost reductions, animal health and welfare, biodiversity and weather resilience. The team is now supporting 11 farmers in the McDonald’s UK & Ireland supply chain to make the same transition. FAI Director Karl Williams and Science Lead Dr Amanda Deakin explain more.

What is AMP grazing? 

AMP grazing is a type of rotational grazing that uses high-density, short-duration grazing to mimic the natural movement of dense, wild ruminant herds driven by predators and food availability. Think wild buffalos on the American great plains or herds of wildebeest on the African savannahs. The animals’ behaviour allows for maximum impact on the land, followed by long rest periods, longer grass growth and deeper roots. This improves the soil structure and allows more water to infiltrate deeper into the soil, reducing runoff.

AMP grazing is not prescriptive and therefore allows farmers to take into account the ground conditions, time of year and weather. As the name suggests, farmers can adapt the parameters depending on the conditions to achieve desired outcomes, such as animal performance, biodiversity and soil health. On our farm, this flexibility also enabled us to cope well with environmental extremes, such as flooding and record summer temperatures.

What impact did we measure?

Over the four years, we recorded 30 environmental metrics, 16 ethical metrics (animal welfare & social) and nine economic metrics to demonstrate the impact of the grazing transition. The study led to substantial regenerative outcomes across the “3Es” (environmental, economic and ethical) areas. Here are the top ones for productivity, soil, animals and people:

Improved productivity with reduced input costs 

By improving pasture productivity we boosted cattle performance and reduced our reliance on bought-in feeds and inputs. We saved £200 per cow per year on bedding and forage costs since we did not have to house livestock over winter.

We’ve achieved more from grass, with daily live weight gains for our suckler finishers increasing to over 0.8kg per day on average. This meant we were able to reduce finishing ages to approximately 23 months on average while keeping a similar slaughter weight.

The power of soil 

As a result of the transition, our beef business is not only carbon neutral, but we’re sequestering more carbon than we’re emitting, according to modelling data from Trinity AgTech’s Sandy tool.

We have also shown that water is infiltrating across our fields almost three times faster, on average. For a farm situated on flood plains, this is a big deal! The way we are farming means our soils can now hold much more water when it’s available. This extends the grass growing season and improves resilience to both drought and flooding.

These improvements have had a knock-on benefit for the resident wildlife. In June 2023 we recorded over 50 species of bird on the farm, and we have a group of cattle egrets living among the cattle during the winter, feeding on the insects they kick up with their hooves.

Improved welfare for the animals – and farm workers 

Low levels of pathologies have meant our already low antibiotic use has reduced even further since 2020 - we were down to 0.95 mg/kg PCU last year. Cattle behaviour studies also found high levels of positive social behaviours in the herd, suggesting good herd welfare.

“I can’t see another way of farming now”, (farm worker).

FAI farm workers were surveyed regularly about their experiences of the AMP grazing transition. All said it was either likely or very likely they would still be implementing regenerative agriculture practices in five years.

The findings in this report provide evidence to support a wider shift towards AMP grazing in the UK beef supply chain, to improve the on-farm and wider ecosystem processes, and to increase the resilience of the sector.

Following the AMP grazing project, McDonald’s UK & Ireland, in partnership with FAI, is now in the second year of helping a group of 11 farmers in the McDonald’s UK&I supply chain transition to AMP grazing. The aim of this is to extend FAI’s learnings from the AMP grazing project into the McDonald’s supply chain and prove AMP grazing can have positive environmental, economic and ethical (3Es) outcomes on commercial enterprises.

Read the full report here