Better beef with Breedr

Ian Sturmer – gives the farmer’s view of the Breedr vision.

- Ian Sturmer

Sturmer Farms has been described as is an exciting example of how the beef sector as a whole could reshape itself to reduce income volatility and better produce what the market wants.

Father-and-son team Ian and Michael have built a profitable beef finishing system by finding a way to operate at scale and having a deep understanding of what the consumer wants. The Sturmers have built up contract farming agreements with six farms, which has given them the scale to finish almost 6,000 dairy-bred steers each year. Ian Sturmer explains how the farm is using Breedr to achieve its vision.

When I came back from university, I sat down with my father, Michael, who was running a 650-head beef finishing unit and we took a long, hard look at what we were doing and where the industry was going.

Consistency of product was a major issue. We were buying animals each week at market that were a variety of breeds, ages, sizes, and from different production methods. Trying to finish them and produce consistent meat-eating quality for the consumer wasn’t particularly easy.

Researching the market

But then we thought, what does the consumer want? What does the market want? What does the whole supply chain want? So, we did some research and even got a team of London chefs down to the farm.

The chefs were struggling to buy British beef that delivered a consistent eating experience. They wanted to be able to put the same steak on the plate week-in week-out and to know what that animal had eaten, its medication, and where it had been its whole life.

The supermarkets also wanted traceability – antibiotic usage, or lack thereof, was really important – but also slightly smaller animals to fit in vacuum-packed packaging.