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What is Freedom Food?

Freedom Food is the RSPCA’s farm assurance and food labelling scheme. It is the only UK farm-assurance scheme to focus solely on improving the welfare of farm animals reared for food. Among its requirements are:

• Each farm animal must be given a nourishing diet.
  Each farm animal must have a spacious, comfortable and stimulating environment that meets its physical and behavioural needs.
  A yearly assessment by Freedom Food assessors monitoring visits by the RSPCA’s farm livestock officers to ensure standards are maintained.
  Traceability from shop to farm.
  
  

Case study 1 Roger Potter,
Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs

Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs have been producing free range eggs for nearly 30 years. Roger Potter started the business after his wife, Susan, bought six hens to provide tasty, fresh, free-range eggs for the family. Their sons James and Adrian now run the business, and they have 85,000 hens roaming over 250 acres.

The eggs are collected daily, and boxed up in their on-site pack house, so they are usually in the shops within 24 hours of being laid. Customers include supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda.

How the Freedom Food scheme affects them
The Potters were among the original members of the RSPCA’s Freedom Food assurance scheme. ‘It’s
been very good for us,’ says Roger ‘it keeps us on our toes, and we can work together with Freedom
Food to bring us up to speed on new welfare solutions’.

The hens spend the night in large, warm, dry sheds where they are protected from the weather, and predators such as foxes. They lay their eggs in nest boxes first thing in the morning. At around 8:00am special 'pop' holes located around the houses open automatically to allow the hens access to the outdoors anytime during the day. They range over grass pastures with trees for cover — an extra 1,200 of which have recently been planted. Their natural, outdoor food is supplemented by a vegetarian diet, with no antibiotics or hormones.

To ensure traceability, every egg is stamped with a unique code and can be traced back to the individual flock where it was laid.

Find out more on the farm’s website at www.yorkshirefarmhouse.co.uk

 

Case study 2 George and Amanda Streatfeild,
Denhay Farm, Dorset

This 1750-acre farm near the Dorset coast has a mild climate, an average rainfall of 90cm, and heavy clay soil — ideal conditions for growing grass. This goes to feed their Freedom Food approved cows, and they in turn provide the milk to make spoiltcow Cheddar cheese. This is available at Morrisons and Tesco. Denhay Farm also produce West Country Farmhouse Cheddar cheese for Waitrose.

Each cow produces around 35 pints of milk a day, and cheese making goes on six days a week. At any
one time over 2000 large, traditional, hand-made cheeses will be stacked in the cheese house. They
take 12 months to mature and are turned daily.

How the Freedom Food scheme affects them

Denhay Farm joined Freedom Food three years ago as a way to emphasise the care they were already
giving to their cows, and to give them a point of difference from other dairy farmers and cheesemakers.
Being part of the scheme ensures that they maintain all their veterinary routines efficiently and look after the buildings more carefully. This can lead to increased costs, but the benefit is that the stock is healthier and lives longer. As Amanda says ‘We go that extra mile to ensure the welfare of our cows.’

The farm has 1000 Friesian Holstein cows, kept in five herds. In summer they graze the grass in the fields, going out along specially-built cow-friendly tracks. Surplus grass is made into silage for storage as winter feed. Silage is fermented grass, similar to pickled onions. The acidity created preserves the feed quality as well as making it very palatable for the cows. They also grow maize and wheat for cow feed. The maize is made into silage in a similar way to the grass. In winter, when the ground is wet and cold, the cows are moved indoors and fed on a diet of grass and maize silage, supplemented with cereals - mainly wheat and soya. While inside, every cow has a mattress to lie on. The muck from the cows is returned to the land to increase fertility and improve plant growth.

Denhay Farms also produce spoiltpig bacon, using their own drycure process. Although they do not keep pigs themselves, all the meat they use comes from Freedom Food approved animals. This means, for example, that they must spend over half their life outdoors with free access to a wholesome, nutritious diet. They spend the rest of their lives in straw barns where they are provided with clean, dry and comfortable bedding.

For more information visit their website www.denhay.co.uk

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