M&S to strengthen its relationship with dairy farmer suppliers in Northern Ireland

​

All are located in the North Antrim area in close proximity to the Lakeland Dairies-owned Ballyrashane milk processing plant.

The retailer’s dairy farm supply base in Northern Ireland has been developed over the past 24 years with the Irwin family, from Dervock, the inaugural participants in the scheme. The farm in question is now managed by David Irwin.

M&S Senior Agricultural Manager, Peter Kennedy, recently visited the Irwin farm,where he confirmed that food is a growth area for the retailer, adding:

“We are committed to providing regionally sourced foods into all our outlets and we want to enhance this level of commitment to customers.”

Peter continued:

“Currently, there are 22 M&S stores in Northern Ireland. Our plan is to expand this number while also investing in our existing sites. M&S has an Ireland-based sourcing team, committed to making this happen.

“Our development plan takes full recognition of the fact that M&S can sell more food in Northern Ireland. And it’s in this context that the scope to source more locally produced liquid milk exists.

“Currently the Belfast and Glasgow catchment areas are our largest retailing centres, where food and drink are concerned.”

Milk from the four M&S suppliers is segregated once it reaches Ballyrashane. Lakeland draws from this specific pool to meet the daily orders placed by M&S.

Retail outlets in the Republic of Ireland are also serviced with milk processed at Ballyrashane.

Excess milk that may be subsequently available is then used by Lakeland to supply other customer orders.

The Select Farm Programme

The quartet of M&S dairy suppliers in Northern Ireland comprises: David Irwin, Jim and Brian Hunter, Matthew Workman and Alan Cochrane.

Peter Kennedy added:

“The M&S Select Farm Programme underpins the standards that we expect our primary producers to meet.

“Our farm supply base currently extends to approximately 8,000 businesses, which are audited on an annual basis.

“The attainment of animal welfare and environmental standards are critically important for M&S. But at the end of the day, the relationship comes down to working with farmers that we know and trust.”

He continued:

“Sustainability and farming carbon are important to our customers. But their number one priority is ensuring that the highest animal welfare standards are being met, at all times, on our suppliers’ farms.”

Mobility scoring cows and reducing levels of lameness represent key M&S welfare-related issues on dairy farms.

Nick Bell, a veterinary surgeon and farm consultant, has been involved with the M&S milk pool since 2006.

He audits all the M&S dairy suppliers on a regular basis and has worked with them to develop mobility scoring as a specific means of managing the challenge posed by lameness in cows.

“All our dairy suppliers receive visits from two vets on an annual basis. This approach is very much centred on developing outcome measures for each of the businesses concerned,” Peter Kennedy further explained.

“This approach encompasses an assessment of all the stock on the farms and how they are faring from a performance perspective.

“There is a clear focus on lameness, other aspects related to animal welfare plus an overall assessment of the herd health standards being achieved by individual farmers.

“We review the management criteria required of all our farmers on an annual basis.

But communication is a two way process. There are 38 M&S dairy farmer suppliers across the UK. They are divided up into regional groups.

David Irwin is the representative for the four-strong group of milk producers in Northern Ireland.

All the representatives meet together on a regular basis with a chairman appointed from within the grouping.

The producer representation is formalised within the structure of a limited company. This allows Nick Bell to formally liaise with members of the business when it comes to agreeing the formal reviews of farm management standards.

Antibiotics

Where the specific use of antibiotics on farms is concerned, Peter Kennedy points to the commitment made by M&S over many years to deliver full transparency on this matter.

“The issue of antibiotic use on dairy farms is a perfect example of this,” he added.

“We have been consistently tracking the use of antimicrobials within these businesses. And it’s an approach that is paying a significant dividend.

“Our farmers are well below the current Responsible Use of Medicines in Agriculture Alliance targets, where antibiotic usage is concerned.

“We want to reduce the use of antibiotics, where responsible. Within some of our supply chains, we have been antibiotic-free for some years.

“But we are not making any claims to this effect. However, we are totally committed to the responsible use of antibiotics within agriculture.

“M&S also publishes the level of antibiotic usage across its farmer-producer base on the company’s web site.

“So there is nothing hidden: all of the information goes into the public domain.”

The pricing model followed by M&S, where its dairy farmer suppliers are concerned, takes full account of the costs they incur: feed, fertiliser, fuel and labour. All the retailers primary milk suppliers are paid on the same basis.

“Again this issue is dealt with on a fully transparent basis,” Peter Kennedy confirmed.

“Labour was brought in as a parameter a couple of years ago to reflect the specific challenges confronting farming businesses at that time.”

The Irwin family

David Irwin farms with his brother Andrew close to the village of Dervock. They milk 250 cows, averaging 9,200L: butterfat is averaging 4.5% with protein at 3.3%.

“We try to graze the cows as much as we can,” David explained.

“In a normal year they would be out in the grazing paddocks from 20 April onwards. After first cut, the milking group is out day and night.

He continued:

“Freshly called cows are kept in until they are back in calf. At that stage they join the rest of the grazing group.

“We take three cuts of silage. This year’s first cut was covered on Friday, 10 May.”

Despite the very slow start to the spring of 2024, David is confident that he hit the sweet spot, where both the yield and quality of this year’s first cut silage are concerned.

A year-round calving policy is followed on the Irwin farm.

“This allows us to maintain a level production profile. It also balances the workload on the farm throughout the year,” David commented.

“It’s a management policy that that has also allowed everyone involved to improve their calf rearing skills.

“It also means that we can give the calves almost individual attention. And this bodes well in terms of minimising health issues while also maximising the performance achieved by the young animals.

Sexed semen is used extensively on the Irwin cows and replacement heifers.

David characterises the relationship built up with M&S over the past 24 years as one of constant progression.

And this process will continue.

He said:

“There is scope to produce more milk for M&S. In our case this can be achieved by adding more animals to the milking herd and also increasing output per cows.

“A neighbouring farm was purchased four years ago. So we have the land availability to extend the scope of the dairying enterprise.

“We are farming a total of 400ac at the present time.”

The relationship between the Irwin family and M&S is built on a number of principles, which will not change. And it all starts with the appearance of the farm.

“Keeping a tidy yard is crucially important,” David stressed.

“We are in a position to welcome visitors to the farm at all times.

“Where the cows are concerned, ensuring their welfare needs are met continuously is the overriding priority.

“And the same principle holds, where the rest of the animals are concerned.”

“And this is a win: win scenario. The higher the management standards that we employ, the better will be the performance levels achieved from the cows.”

He concluded:

“Where the winter management of the cows is concerned, we are continuously seeking to improve cubicle comfort.

“We use M&S trained foot trimmers on a monthly basis, who will also locomotion-score the cows.

“I am aware that new technology, designed to carry out mobility scoring automatically, is now available.

“This is an issue that we are looking into at the moment.”

Climate change

Marks and Spencer (M&S) remains committed to meeting key climate change targets into the future.

In turn, this will challenge its 8,500 farmer-suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint of their operations.

But, according to M&S head of agriculture – Steve Mclean- developing technologies will help these targets to be met.

During a recent visit to Northern Irelnd he profiled the inclusion of the methane inhibitor, Bovaer, as a case in point.

He explained:

“The product works and we are already specifying its inclusion in dairy rations.”

But McLean recognises that the current format of the product does not allow its use in grazing scenarios, adding:

“I am confident that research will deliver a feasible methane mitigation option for grazing livestock in the very near future.”

Again, where new technologies are concerned, M&S is helping to pioneer the use of new, environment-compatible fertilisers in the UK.

Known as Impact Zero, the product range is manufactured by Fertiberia in Spain using green hydrogen.

The fertilisers contain a mix of nitric and ammoniacal nitrogen (N) as well as plant-available sulphur (S) for effective plant growth and to drive nitrogen-use efficiency.

In addition, they contain an exclusive biodegradable regulating polymer coating that reduces leaching losses.

Overall, this delivers a level nitrogen-use efficiency that is 22% higher than normally secured from conventional fertilisers.

This figure is supported by preliminary data from trials on M&S dairy farms, which show that the product applied at a rate of 150kg/ha (equivalent to 36 kg of N/ha) leads to 31% higher yields over two silage cuts than an NS 27:12 product at the equivalent application rate.

In addition, the inclusion of green hydrogen in the fertiliser manufacturing process brings about a 3t reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per tonne of ammonia used.

These comparisons relate to the use of a conventional fertiliser.

This sees the production of ammonia move from utilising natural gas to produce hydrogen, to using only water and renewable energy, there significantly reducing the environmental impact of the fertiliser manufacturing process.

Steve McLean commented:

“As a business, M&S has set bold targets to reduce our carbon footprint and become a net zero business across our entire value chain by 2040.

Seventy-two per cent of the M&S Food’s emissions come from agriculture and around half of these are from livestock, primarily ruminants.

“As such, it is critical that we work with our farmers to deliver meaningful change. We believe that the use of these fertilisers will enable our farmers to maintain productivity whilst playing an important role in helping to decarbonise milk production.”