“We used to take our Highland cattle to be slaughtered there. Alison Younger of Old Leckie Farm in Gargunnock says the 2018 closure of a small, family-run abattoir in Dunblane seriously affected her own business. It came to a point where we were running as hard as we could, but still going backwards.” More stress – for people and animalsĭownfield is not the first of its kind to close.
BUBBLE LETTER CHAIN REAL FULL
“Our diary was full but, without the staff to carry out the level of throughput required, we had to close. “For farmed deer in Scotland, we were where they came if they wanted to sell the venison themselves,” Jane told me. The closure is even more galling when you discover that the demand for their services was not an issue. ‘Our diary was full but, without the staff to carry out the level of throughput required, we had to close’
It was even more difficult to find anyone interested in training as a slaughterman alongside the butchery.” We had tried going down the apprenticeship route for some time, with the help of Business Gateway, but were unable to get any candidates. She said: “Trained butchers are hard to find. When I spoke to Jane Prentice, joint owner of Downfield Farm, she told me that the main issues behind the decision to close were staff shortages and rising costs. They are not the only small producers to be affected by this closure. They will only take larger numbers of goats for slaughter at peak times of demand, and will now concentrate on other aspects of their business, like cashmere. So, the market they had found for supplying small quantities of high welfare goat meat to chefs and individuals is no longer economic. They won’t be able to get the same service as Downfield offered, since they do not have an on-site butchery or tanning facilities. Neil and Jillian McEwan of Lunan Bay Farm (Photo: Darrell Benns/DC Thomson)ĭue to Downfield’s recent closure, Lunan Bay now have to take their goats to Grantown-on-Spey, which is a longer journey. This allowed them to find a sustainable use for as many parts as possible, with little going to waste. There, they were able to get their animals’ skins, horns and offal gathered. It’s just over an hour’s round trip, with butchery done on-site. I spoke to Jillian McEwan at Lunan Bay Farm, who explained that, until recently, they took their grass-fed goats to be culled at Downfield Farm, near Cupar in Fife. Small producers are directly affected by abattoir closures There needs to be room for local abattoirs which will take smaller batches of animals for slaughter, providing a bespoke service for small-scale food producers. But that one-size-fits-all approach shouldn’t be the only solution. Increasingly, customers want to know about sustainability, low food miles and provenance.īut, at the unfashionable end of food production, the abattoir (the place we try to not think about) plays a crucial role in the food chain.ĭue to economies of scale, large abattoirs prefer to work with high-volume contracts. Recently, small-scale farmers have done extraordinary things to diversify, often changing how and what they farm and selling directly in farm shops or farmers’ markets to become financially sustainable. The reality, though, is a farm, slaughterhouse, and then a butchery, no matter where you buy from.
The convenience of supermarkets have revolutionised how we shop for food. If you ask our children: “Where does meat come from?”, most will tell you: “The supermarket.” Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Information An icon of an information logo. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across.
0 kommentar(er)
