WITH all the publicity surrounding the less endearing activities of McDonald's, it may come as a surprise that beef from Wiltshire goes into Big Macs.

Philip Abbatt, who has farmed at Potterne Park Farm, near Devizes, for 14 years, has had a working arrangement with McDonald's for four years. He is impressed that the world's largest caterer cares about the quality of life of the raw material for its products.

Mr Abbatt said: "I am glad they are doing it here rather than have Brazilian farmers chop down rainforests, and I am pleased to be able to give animals, that would otherwise be shot and burned, a short but pleasant life."

He is supplied with calves by Blade Farming, whose managing director Richard Phelps explained that the Holstein calves being raised on the farm come from a dairy herd.

Their lives at Potterne Park are fairly short - they are taken off for slaughter to Somerset after about a year - but fairly pleasant.

They live in a large open barn, and are fed with fodder mainly produced on the farm. Would it not be even more pleasant for them to be out doors?

That has health and safety implications, said Mr Abbatt. "Because they are entire bulls, they could be a bit frisky and the last thing I want is anybody crossing one of my fields to get hurt."

Another visitor to Potterne Park Farm last week was Paul Booth, who has been involved with McDonald's, first as senior manager and then a franchisee, for 20 years.

He owns McDonald's in Swindon, Cirencester, Watchfield and elsewhere in the area.

He said: "Despite working for the company for all those years this is the first working farm I have visited and it is just lovely.

"We really do source on a local basis. Some 70 per cent of our ingredients are sourced in the UK."

The company does business with 16,500 beef farmers in the UK, 45 of them in Wiltshire. It spends £460 million a year on British produce, £5.5 million of it in the South West.

Not all the beef from Mr Abbatt's animals goes into burgers. Only the forequarters and flanks are used. The more expensive cuts end up in supermarkets.

McDonald's may have felt the need to clean up their public image after the damage caused by the McLibel trial and Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me.

If this has ended up with healthier meals being offered and more business for British farmers, then so much the better.