Collection Centres
Collection Centres
Buitelaar have four strategically located, Farm Assured collection centres, situated for ease of access to the heavily populated dairy areas of Castle Douglas, Wrexham, Frome and Haddiport. Every Monday, we collect between 800-1,500 calves of a wide variety of breeds to both stock our own supply chain and sell to a range of independent rearers and beef producer operations nationwide.
Buitelaar has worked tirelessly to build strong, supportive and trusted relationships with our dairy farmers, enabling us to source consistent, strong and healthy calves direct from Buitelaar approved and monitored dairy farms. Working hand-in-hand with the Buitelaar Tech Team, our dairy suppliers are regularly assessed on their standards of early-stage calf rearing, health recording and calf housing. The support available, helps farmers produce a healthier and increasingly efficient animal, which in turn delivers a more carbon-friendly and profitable model for the dairy-beef producer.
We also operate Collection Centres for farm reared calves, young store cattle and hold a fortnightly Orange Collection.
Sustainability & Traceability
In the past, calves bought from dairy farms, were mainly sourced through markets, which presented numerous challenges such as subjecting animals to lengthy transport times, the stress of market environments and lack of origin traceability.
First opened in 2013, the purpose of the weekly Collection Centres was to both improve sustainability within the Buitelaar Supply Chain and increase animal welfare. The confidence in our system is reflected in our calf collection growth; from collecting just 30 calves per week in 2013, to a current average of 1,200.
Our Calf Collections and data driven approach to our supply chain ensure we are able to track any calf back to the dairy farm of origin, enabling extensive monitoring of health patterns.
Pricing
We pride ourselves on our sustainable pricing structure for the dairy farmer, offering a trusted, consistent and convenient sales channel. On arrival, each calf is assessed for health, conformation and weighed and benchmarked against the average expected birth weights to give a weight-for-age figure. The calves are then priced according to these criteria.
CALF ENTRY FORM DOWNLOADHigher Animal Welfare
Calves are bedded on deep straw in clean, spacious pens with ventilation and access to fresh drinking water. All of our Centres run under 24-hour CCTV which offers complete transparency to our industry retailers and partners.
