On this page . . .

More in-depth details about the Real Meat Company:

# Why we are not organic - Summary

# Our farmers - A complete list of farmers currently supplying us.

# Summary of our Diet / Welfare Codes - How we care for our livestock

# Why we are not organic - The full story

Why not organic?

We are not and have never been members of any organic group. We believe that our standards are higher and our products superior to organic.

Sadly organic has become a by-word for all that is best in farming. This is not the case.

A full discussion, which is quite a read, can be found at the bottom of the page. In summary:

Purity - There is no difference in purity between organic meat and Real Meat because we both ban the residue creating pre-emptive medication regimes favoured by conventional farmers.

Quality - Organic groups have no core-policy on flavour or eating quality at all. It is possible to get good organic meat and as easily possible to get awful organic meat. Real Meat has clear policy of purity, flavour and eating quality along with our other concerns.

Welfare - We believe ourselves to be distinctly superior here. We do not allow de-beaking of hens, we do not allow separation of young calves from their mothers, we insist on all livestock being killed by hand (to avoid the inevitable failure rate of machines) and we do not allow 'derogations'. Derogations are where organic farmers can apply to basically ignore one or more of the rules.

Accountability. We check both farms and retail outlets more often and more thoroughly than any organic group.

It is not that we do not like the organic movement. It is just that from the early days we could see that they would, in the end, compromise and let their customers down

The Real Meat Company Diet / Welfare Codes

Our Codes are unique to us. They were originally a manifestation of our founders' views of how farm livestock should be reared with consultation made with the views of charities and academic institutions.
The actual Codes may be requested by anyone, anytime. What follows here is a summary of the key points with some comparisons to their schemes.
Should any extra information or clarification be required, do not hesitate to e-mail or telephone us.

Our table chickens

A luxury until the 1960s, chicken is now regarded by most people as a cheap source of meat. This cheapness is entirely due to the intensive and often cruel rearing methods. A properly reared chicken must cost roughly the same as the average of other meats.
By rewriting the rule book for keeping table chickens, we have tackled every issue from the diet and the welfare to the breed and ultimately the flavour.

'Conventional' chicken

Almost everything is wrong with the way conventional (and quasi-free range) birds are kept. The birds are overcrowded. Daylength is artificially extended to keep birds eating and growing. They are fed, sometimes caught and invariably killed by machine. Breeds are used which are prone to leg weakness and bone degeneration so that it is painful for the birds to walk or stand for any length of time - a hidden, residue free growth promoting system.

All to provide cheap chicken?

Our table chickens are different

Our table chickens have the biggest price difference. They cost loads more than intensive ones and more than other 'free range' and 'organic' types. This is not to stop people buying them. It is simply because if you address every issue they are bound to cost relatively more.

The differences start from day one. Chicks of our special breed, the 'Master Gris', are placed into special movable houses with natural daylight and daylength. The birds are subjected to no-pre-emptive feed medications. They are fed by hand and their bedding checked and refreshed daily, by hand.
As soon as they are strong enough, they are allowed to range freely. They live longer than ordinary birds and are ultimately caught by hand and transported in special modules. Chickens are normally killed by machine meaning that up to 8% are still alive when they enter the plucking machine. Ours are killed by hand, which costs more, to make sure that this cannot happen.
You will only get this standard of care and welfare with our chickens.

Our beef cattle

Seeing the odd herd of beef cattle wandering about in a field near where you live or when you go on holiday could lull you into believing that all is well with all British beef - not so. Once again, if you want all welfare and purity details sorted and superb flavour, you need to do it like we do.

'Conventional' beef

Intensive, quasi free range and even organic beef production has some pretty interesting tricks up its sleeve. A very large proportion of British beef is effectively a by product of dairying. These breeds are unsuitable for good beef and rely on the calf being taken away from the mother shortly after birth. The grieving mother goes on to become a milk machine whilst the calf is given fake milk in a bucket. Organic farmers are permitted to do this.

Even the ones born to proper beef cattle may not have it so good. Many cattle including 'Scotch', 'Freedom Foods' and some organic schemes allow the cattle to be kept on slats instead of traditional straw bedding. These may cheapen the product but are messy and very uncomfortable for the cattle (picture).

Our beef cattle are different

Once again we do everything that is required in the rearing of cattle using the best of farming practice.
We use exclusively single suckled herds where the calves stay with their mothers. They are at pasture through most of the year (all year in some cases) and, when housed for the winter, will have plenty of space and have proper straw bedding.
We prohibit all pre-emptive medication regimes or growth promoters We ban the very sophisticated 'bolus' system which introduces a slow release parasiticide into the animals stomach to release chemicals for 165 days!
The breeds we use are traditional British breeds, sometimes pure, sometimes crossed with continental beef types for leanness. Either way, the flavour, after appropriate hanging, is superb.

Our pigs for pork and bacon

The most intelligent farmyard animal. The only one that arranges different places to feed, play, sleep and, well, go to the loo. The pig is full of surprises. The traditional way to keep pigs has always been in strawed sties. We have updated this to give the pigs more room. Keeping pigs outdoors in the British climate is a practice taken up in the past because it is cheap. Although on a summer's evening it can seem idyllic. Remember to pop back sometime between October and March to see the poor things wading through mud with only a measly tin hut in which to shelter.
We keep our pigs indoors in spacious straw bedded sties as has been done in this country since Roman times and before. Those who genuinely care about pigs and have actual hands on experience know that 'outdoor' pigs are a cruel myth.

'Conventional' pigs

Indoor conventional pigs suffer dramatic overcrowding in a strawless, soulless environment. They can be sold as 'outdoor bred' if they come from a sow kept in a tin hut outside and then taken away at three weeks of age and shoved into rather nasty pens indoors.
Outdoor conventional and organic pigs suffer greatly. Whatever one's view on pigs, this is not a natural environment. The naturally forest-rampaging animals are kept behind high-voltage fences in pens which, for much of the year, are mud baths.

Our pigs are different

Our pigs are treated differently. Born in the protection of a special farrowing pen, mother is temporarily restrained in a farrowing crate solely to protect the vulnerable, tiny piglets. This way we manage to keep up to 10% more piglets alive during the challenging early days.
After the piglets have grown to a reasonable size, at around 21 days, groups of mother share space and piglets in a strawed pen.
After weaning, the piglets grow on in ever larger pens until ready at pork or bacon (heavier) weight.
We prohibit tail amputation, castration (cannot be performed under anesthetic) and nose rings in sows. We insist that the floors are at least 75% solid and straw bedded.
We ban all of the pre-emptive medication and growth modifying regimes.

Our lamb

A surprising amount of effort is required to keep quality, natural lamb available through out the year. Many tricks have been deployed over the years to bring in cheap lamb which, in any case, most believe is naturally natural.
To get lamb from small family farms from the lush pastures of Britain's south west; lamb that has not been adulterated or mistreated you need to buy ours. Any other, well . . . .

Conventional lamb

Everyone thinks lambs must be natural because that has been their advertising image for more than a quarter of a century. Welsh, New Zealand, doesn't matter. Wherever it comes from, we are told it is 'natural'.
In fact the one thing that is certain, if you buy lamb from a supermarket or the average butcher - you know absolutely nothing about how it lived or died.
There are the hormones given to ewes to make them lamb out of season (to catch the lucrative 'spring lamb' market). There is the drug routinely fed to lambs kept on unrested pastures to stop them getting coccidiocis. There are the slatted feedlots (see picture) used for consistent supermarket chops. There are the 'New Zealand' semi-automated killing lines where the lambs struggle to escape from the restraint conveyors before being killed.
Doesn't sound so natural now?

Our lambs are different

Our lambs come from genuine, small family farms. Our spring lamb is from breeds which naturally lamb in the autumn (to provide lambs ready for spring - i.e. spring lamb).
We prohibit the use of hormones, preventative medication regimes and any other arbitrary medication.
Should the lambs or the whole flock be brought in for the winter, they will be bedded the traditional way on proper straw bedding. Hard work and expensive it may be but anyone committed to animal welfare could accept nothing less.

Our laying hens (for eggs)

Eggs were the first livestock derived item to benefit from the free range awakening that took place in the early 1970's. Sadly, they were also the first to succumb to the supermarkets grasping the whole process and bringing it under their own control.
We keep our laying hens just like the one's in the picture books that children read, just like our customers would, if they could keep them themselves.

'Conventional' laying hens

For 'conventional' here we are not looking at battery hens but the so called alternatives. 'Barn' eggs were a great example of using nouns and adjectives to beguile customers. Whoever thought up the term, 'barn', as opposed to 'enormous concrete shed', probably got a bonus big enough to retire on. You can actually get more chickens into a 'barn' than into the equivalent sized battery house. The overcrowded birds are de-beaked, subjected to light intensity regimes to make them lay more eggs and have so little floor space that they are compelled to try to fly from roost bar to roost bar and fracture their sternums trying to land.
Meanwhile, high volume free range relies upon huge static sheds where birds are discouraged from leaving the house and inside are not significantly different to barn conditions.

Our laying hens are different

We prohibit de-beaking and are virtually unique in this respect. Even organic flocks may be debeaked. We prohibit artificial lighting to extend daylength. We insist on small movable house which are moved on to fresh ground, as necessary. The birds are fed by hand and the eggs collected by hand.

We fulfill the picture that most people imagine when they describe the term 'free range'.

Why not organic? - The full discussion.

Despite many aims and beliefs in common, the Real Meat Company founders back in 1985 came to the conclusion that, even the best organic groups were flawed and would never be able to cover every issue fully.

We sincerely believe that any customer sincerely seeking the very best in terms of the combination of Welfare, Purity and Quality will find it with us and cannot rely on organic standards to deliver.

What follows is a heavy read but, we hope, lays out fairly and clearly why we believe our standards go much further to address customer concerns.

Loose terminology
The term organic was originally deployed decades ago by sincere pioneers of the movement. The Soil Association would be Britain’s prime example – populated by sincere zealots and right-minded people. Then talk of a ‘British’, then ‘European’ organic standard came along. Also other groups were starting up who were less concerned with principles and more concerned with cashing in on what looked like a huge potential market for organic goods. By the time Euro regulations were set, the standards were well below what the Soil Association might have wanted but fulfilled what government needed – a reassuring sounding scheme to appease the clamour for organic and green policy.

When assessing ‘organic’ we therefore have to work on the lowest permissible standard. Keenly managed, commercially run food companies will skid along at the bottom of any set of rules to achieve maximum profit.

Fundamental Flaw
Checking whether or not the goods on sale actually originated from the source stated has always been an obsession for the Real Meat Company. We discovered / invented / deployed the best security systems. If we find a cheat, we deal harshly with them. Security wing tags in chickens, strip marks on pork and bacon and the formidable genetic finger-printing were all first deployed by us. Over the years we have caught a number of cheats, ceased supplying them and, where necessary, referred the case to Trading Standards. In 1988, we became the first meat company in history to prosecute one of its own customers for cheating. With the help of Basingstoke Trading Standards a prosecution was secured. What does it say about us that we are prepared to invest money in a system which, if triggered, may lose us significant revenue? It says a lot, we believe.

It appears that there is no such system operated by any organic group. Therefore the meat could be substituted without any real chance of detection. We believe that this represents a huge and fundamental difference. If you cannot be reassured that organic meat actually is organic, it hardly matters by what standards it is purported to be grown.

In 2005 the Food Standards Agency took what should have been fairly routine samples of chicken meat from a number of supermarkets. All sold as free range / organic by Tescos, Morrisons and Waitrose, the meat contained significant traces of a chemical called nitrofuran. This is a growth promoter which is not only prohibited for use by organic farmers but had been banned Europe wide for all farmers since 1991! No action was taken against these shops by any organic group and, it appears, absolutely nothing has happened to the supplier nor has there been any explanation as to how this could have happened.

Accountability / Open door / Transparency
In an effort to outmanoeuvre look-alike and sound-alike products cropping up in supermarkets and other shops back in the early ’90s, we developed our Total Transparency policy which left all other, including organic groups, standing. We figured that the only true reassurance for customers is not yet another government scheme (Red Tractor etc) but giving customers free access to everything we do. Not just one or two show farms to take journalists and customers to but access to every farm and cold room and lorry and cutting room and, yes, every abattoir. This revolutionary system has never been equaled (try asking Waitrose for free access to all abattoirs providing meat for their stores!)

What we did not realise was that we had also left the organic movement way behind. The abattoirs we use are relatively small and are family owned and provide exceptional care for the livestock at this critical episode in the animals life. Several times, the BBC have requested access for interviews or locations at one of our abattoirs and always been answered by the unique reply, ‘Which one?’ as opposed to being fobbed off with the like of ‘I’ll get back to you’ or ‘It’s against hygiene regulations.’

In order to supply the mighty supermarkets, the organic groups use abattoirs which are not going to welcome customer visits. One can only guess why.

So far...
So there is no scientific proof audit in place to check that organic meat is what it is and customers are not at liberty to inspect all aspects of the supply side. These amount to a huge difference between us and the organic movement and we have not even reached the actual standards yet.

Core issues:
The Real Meat Company stands for Welfare, Purity and Quality. For most customers, these are the core issues. In reverse order:

Quality:
This is easy because although organic groups must follow general health and hygiene regulations (along with all other food companies in the UK), there is nothing in organic rules or regulations to cover quality at all. The Real Meat Company stipulates breeds, hanging times, cooling regimes and ingredients for sausages and ready meals. Organic have no specific stipulations to improve eating quality at all. It is perfectly possible to eat organic meat and poultry that tastes no better than, and some times worse than, conventional fare.

Purity:
The Real Meat Company has always prohibited the use of pre-emptive drug regimes, growth promoters, yolk colourants, egg enhancers and all other unnecessary chemicals which might be added to livestock feed. In fairness, so do the organic groups. Should an animal fall ill and need medical treatment, we believe in prompt appropriate treatment with double the manufacturers withdrawal period observed. So do organic groups.

In addition, organic groups insist that the livestock diet must consist totally or partially of organically grown material. This, in theory, eliminates chemicals that might have been applied to the crops grown to produce the livestock fodder. In practice, these chemicals are too remote and small in quantity deployed to make any impact. It is those added directly to the animal’s diet which cause residue problems (like the nitrofuran mentioned above). Therefore, although our livestock is fed non-organic feed, it is as pure as organic in every way.

Welfare:
We have always believed that our welfare is significantly superior to the organic groups. These examples illustrate the point: None of these items are insisted upon in organic Codes.

Table Chickens: Real meat farmers must use our special breed, ‘Master Gris’ which does not suffer from significant congenital leg weakness. No artificial daylight. Must be killed by hand (machine killing is not 100% reliable resulting in birds being plucked alive). Inspected three times per year.

Laying Hens: Small movable houses. No artificial daylight. No beak cutting. Humane death at end of lay. Inspected three times per year.

Sheep/Lambs: No hormones administered to make ewes lamb in unnatural season. No slats (a nasty alternative to traditional straw bedding involving animals living on a plastic, metal or concrete grid). No semi-automated abattoir lines. We do not allow trade through live markets which is distressing and totally unnecessary. Inspected twice per year.

Cattle: No dairy breeds or systems. No early weaning. No slats. We do not allow trade through live markets which is distressing and totally unnecessary. Inspected twice per year.

Pigs: Straw bedded sty system favoured over potentially unsuitable outdoor system. Traditional sty system allows much better perinatal care and piglet survival and avoids putting pigs and piglets to the unnecessary risk of death, injury or discomfort involved with most outdoor systems. Inspected three times per year.

Turkeys/ Geese / Ducks: No extended daylength. Genuine free range. No beak cutting (turkeys). Killed by hand.

Other key issues:

Where have all the zealots gone?
The Real Meat Company is still owned and controlled by its founders whose passion for animal welfare and food quality is legend. No one can join, influence or bully the Real Meat Company. It cannot be gagged, voted down or taken over.

All organic groups are membership and committee based. All very well unless the ‘bad guys’ turn up in force. We now have ‘Rachel’s Dairy’ – the justifiably quaint sounding brand started by Britain’s first organic dairy farmer – taken over and now owned by Dean Foods. Dean Foods is an enormous dairy conglomerate based in the USA with apparently no great historical commitment to organic farming. In fact they are purported to be great fans of the milk inducing hormone BST, currently banned throughout Europe.

Meanwhile the organic ‘Seeds Of Change’ is owned by legendary organic food campaigners – the Mars organisation (some mistake surely!).

Organic and Fairtrade chocolate pioneers Green and Black’s sell out to Cadbury-Schweppes left Fairtrade and the organic movement struggling to find something positive to say. Whilst the founders drift off into the sunset, comfortably off, some cocoa farmers in Africa get a fair price from Cadburys, whilst others, presumably do not. Yet some grow organically and others do not. Confused? They must be.

Now that people and organisations with clearly no personal commitment to the ethos of high, welfare, additive free or organic what are the chances that the goods will be sincerely checked, transported and traded?

The Chosen People
To be an organic farmer, you simply have to join an organic group, sign some papers, change some farming practices over a period, pay some money and pass the annual inspection. You do not have to be a good farmer or an experienced farmer. You certainly do not have to believe in the concepts. With big grants now in place to go organic, many farmers who do not care for the concepts at all have jumped on the band wagon. The likelihood of such farmers doing a good and conscientious job is pretty remote.

The Real Meat Company is different. You cannot join. There is no membership fee. You must be selected. If we believe a farmer has the attitude and experience to do the job and can follow our rules, we will take him on. If he follows the rules but is always having to be chivvied up or he has interests in unacceptable farming practices elsewhere, we are at liberty to simply turf them out.

Bad attitude to health care
Organic groups tend to urge members away from treating animals for illness and then recommend that alternative therapies be used preferentially. Whereas alternative therapies, or at least some of them, may work for humans, the position is unclear. Animals depend on us for a remedy when ill and should not be subjected to vague or untested alternative remedies if this delays recovery or prolongs suffering.

The Real Meat Company Codes insist that that animals are treated promptly and properly. It is a serious welfare issue to allow an animal in your care not to get appropriate, effective treatment quickly.

Beware the Derogation
Whatever customers make of the different organic codes, there is one bizarre tool in the box that the Real Meat Company does not allow and finds objectionable – the ‘Derogation’. Despite the organic codes being published, made available and seen as a particular bench-mark, under certain circumstances, part or parts of them can be ignored. Should a farmer be able to prove that he cannot follow part of the codes, he can apply for a derogation. The customers and information handlers (journalists etc) will not know about this. Quite why an organisation can have a rule to allow it to break its own rules, we are not sure – but we do not like it.

Morality by committee
When a practical or philosophical decision has to be taken over animal welfare, the Real Meat Company’s guiding principle is, "Is this being done for the farmer’s benefit (ie to make farming easier or cheaper) or for the animal's benefit (ie to make its life more comfortable or less hazardous)?" When in 1997 we were given a leaked university report that table chicken breeda used in the UK all suffered from congenital leg weakness and pain (it’s a subtle way that intensive farmers use to make birds grow faster), we immediately sought out an alternative. Once located, we switched the entire Real Meat throughput to this breed. In order to follow suit, the organic movement will need to organise meetings, take votes, appoint committees and alter European directives. We cannot see this happening in the foreseeable future.

Answerable to who?
In the spirit of good old fashioned trade the Real Meat Company is answerable to its brand principles – welfare, purity and quality – and to its customers. No supermarket has big contracts with which to bully us, no congress of members or shareholders can sway us from our chosen path.

When a really big crisis hit UK farming – BSE – different organisations did different things. The government said everything was all right, the farmers said it was a fuss over nothing but we were not so sure. In the absence of hard science on the origin, cause, transmission or likely transference to humans we took our own unique path. We simply changed our Codes to stipulate that Real Meat beef cattle could not be drawn from any herd or from any farm upon which BSE had been reported. This meant excluding many applicant farmers. Twenty years on with the BSE threat behind us, in 2008, we removed this restriction. It still, however, tells a story of how the priorities stacked up.. Unpopular with the farming lobby, we were answering our consumers whose concerns we see as paramount.

The organic groups, however, consist of members, most of whom are farmers. They therefore could not decide or vote to exclude their own members. So when BSE cropped up on farms which were or were to become organic, it made no difference. The idea that decisions affecting customer can be taken by a vested interest exposes another subtle, yet important difference.

And finally
The Real Meat Company has always shunned sponsorship. To believe that sponsorship is all about big companies giving you lots of money and expecting nothing in return is naïve beyond belief. Yet organic meetings, galas, awards etc continue to be sponsored by organisations who improve their credibility no end and succeed in duping their customers into believing that they are ‘in’ with the organic crowd.

Summary
Real Meat is superior because:
Just one clear message – There are loads of different ‘organics’, some better than others.
We use sophisticated technology and sanctions to check that meat is not substituted. Organic appears to have no scientific checks that their meat originates from an organic source and not much sign of any other security protocol.
Total transparency – our customers can inspect any part of the process. Organic has no total transparency. Customers cannot see for themselves what is going on.
We strive to achieve optimum eating quality. Quality is not covered specifically at all in organic standards.
Our welfare is, we sincerely believe, superior in all areas.
Our purity is at least equivalent.
Real Meat is owned and operated by the pioneers who started it
Real Meat makes clear decisions on moral or welfare issues. No committees to consult.
Real Meat does not allow ‘derogations’ to undermine its own codes.
Real Meat is answerable to its customers. No conferences, no votes, no shareholders.

Our farmers

The cunning supermarkets will flag up one or two hand picked farmers and use them in quaint settings to lull their customers into believing that this represents the standards of farming used to supply them. Phooey.
In order to supply the Real Meat Company, ALL farmer must undertake to allow free public access. Below is not a sample of, a few of, a representation of - it is EVERY farmer producing for us. We have nothing to hide.

Beef Farmer - Ed Green

All of our beef comes from Ed Green’s farm in Somerset.

Apart the challenge of adhering to our Codes, Ed must apply his skills to carefully choosing the exact moment when a particular animal is the right weight, not too fat and not too lean to produce delicious beef.

Young cattle are chosen from approved farms including those reared by Real Meat Company founders, Richard Guy and Gilly Metherell, at East Hill Farm.

From Ed’s farm to the abattoir, it is a short journey - better for welfare, better for the environment.

Beef Store Farmers Richard Guy and Gilly Metherell

Our founders, Richard Guy and Gilly Metherell, rear Aberdeen Angus and South Devon cattle on their farm in Wiltshire. They take them to "store" stage as the grass on their downland farm is not rich enough to take them through to be ready for beef.
Ed Green, our beef finisher, buys them and undertakes the finishing process.

Pork and Bacon Farmer - James Bodman

James Bodman farms pigs for bacon and pork on his farm near Devizes. His knowledge, experience and sheer interest in pigs is huge. It needs to be. Real Meat's traditional sty-rearing pig farming involves more hard work and manual labour than any other system.
He draws from a number of specially selected breeds to produce pork and bacon pigs suited to our traditional system and delivering phenomenal flavour.

Chicken Farmer Geoff Dunn

Geoff farms further over towards Oakhampton. The table chicken farmers work as a team to have a steady flow of chickens ready each week.

Chicken Farmer - Mike Palfrey

In common with our other Devon chicken farmers, Mike has faced the challenge of genuine free range table chicken farming with dedication and the hard work required.

Chicken Farmers - John and Barbara Shapland

When we moved our chicken farming to Devon, John and Barbara were the first to take on board the challenges of our unique farming demands.

Duck Farmer - James Coleman

James Coleman is the son of Peter and Sue Coleman who see to the processing of our ducks and table chickens in the Crediton area. Young James is the family duck specialist. Through a single minded approach to free range duck farming, his experience is second to none.

Goose Farmer - Phil Dunning

Phil Dunning rears free range geese for us on his farm near Yeovil. This is yet another example of a genuine small family farm with which we are proud to be associated. Mother and the boys are all in the family business.
His son, Joe produces our eggs.

Turkey Farmer - Graham Squires

Graham Squires took over growing our turkeys, following the methods we had pioneered. He farms near Chelmsford. Bronze and White are reared together.
Growing Real Meat Company turkeys - no de-beaking, no medication, no growth promoters and free range was thought to be impossible. A Ministry advisor said that they would die of disease or peck each other to death. As with so many things, we ignored the dogma and found our own way.
Most turkeys are still de-beaked and routinely medicated. Not ours. Never have been, never will be.

Egg (Laying Hen) Farmer - Joe Dunning

Joe Dunning is the man behind our unique way of keeping laying hens. This is a much more demanding and hands-on approach than any other system. His dad, Phil, is our goose supplier. When our previous egg supplier decided to retire in 2006, young Joe took up the opportunity and the challenge.

Lamb Farmer - Will Dickson

Will Dickson farms between Salisbury and Ringwood. Maintaining a steady supply of lamb, grown according to our Codes, throughout the season, relies on using different breeds and rearing techniques. Will has lambs through the winter and early spring.

Lamb Farmers - Gavin and Abi Atterton

Gavin and Abi farm on the beautiful Fonthill Estate in Wiltshire.
They choose their breeding stock carefully to produce lambs with remarkable quality and consistency of size.

Lamb Farmer Patrick Langdown

Patrick farms just south of Shaftesbury. He loves the traditional Dorset breed. It is Dorsets that lamb naturally in the autumn providing natural spring lamb. ('Spring' refers to when it is ready to eat, not when it was born!)