What percentage of UK cattle are kept indoors their whole life
This is called "zero-grazing" or "continuous housing"
Bear in mind that % of herds is not the same as percentage of cows, because larger herds ar emore likely to house indoors.
- A 2019 voluntary survey of 1,363 english cattle farmers selected for TB risk (as the survey was primarily about that) finds 4%
- 8% for larger herds over 150 cattle, 3% for smaller herds.
- A guardian article from 2021, with no source claims 20%+
- The animal welfare committee reported that 2018/2019 AHDB claim 6% for dairy
- Among the 95% of UK dairy herds that graze, approximately 7% do sofor over 9 months a year, 65% for 6–9 months, 20% for 3–6 months and 3% for fewer than 3 months
- It is likely to be less for beef herds because the milk system is thought to be conducive to being indoors all the time (from an efficiency perspective)
- However, bulls for the dairy industry are nearly always kept in 'bull pens' which basically means kept inside, often on their own, whenever they're not breeding.
- A BBC freedom of information request (reported August 2024) details:
- 141,000 cattle in Northern Ireland on large cattle farms (over 700) across 141 farms
- 915,000 across Great Britain across 802 farms (average of 1,140 per farm)
- That's 1,056,000 kept in large farms
9,631,892-1,056,000
(1,056,000*0.1)+(8,575,892*0.04)
448,635.68/9,631,892
802+141