Fallen stock could be worth a further £40m

Increasing the value from fallen stock and animal by-products could be worth more than £40m a year to the livestock industry, according to a Royal Agricultural College report.

Presenting the findings at the House of Lords, report author, Stewart Houston, said the industry needed to have a change in attitude to animal waste.

All producers, good or bad, had room to reduce livestock losses through improved health and welfare, but there was also scope to raise the value of unavoidable stock losses, said Mr Houston, who is chairman of the British Pig Executive.

He added that current high livestock prices meant the potential value from reducing livestock losses was higher than it had ever been and created an incentive for improvement.

“In Denmark, using cooling units to store pig carcasses for up to six weeks [so that batches of animals can be formed] has been shown to reduce collection costs by 30%. Improved quality also means renderers will pay more for the product, mitigating the costs,” he said.

“We don’t take animal by-products seriously enough in the UK. Our EU competitors make a much better job of separating edible co-products from the so-called fifth quarter (offal). There are still products we could market better. For example, in China pig ears sell for more than the loin.”

Commenting on the report, Michael Seals, chairman of the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England, said the main message was turning waste into value.

“This is a theme we all need to follow and we all need to work together, think out of the box and treat dead animals as potential for value – not only to the farmer, but the whole supply chain.”