A new £2.2 million abattoir will provide a big boost to livestock farmers.
The building is located beside the A46 on Andy Hawley's Six Hills Farm, and is a joint venture between him and Mike Winterton, of Newstead Farm, Queniborough.
- image expired
It will create up to 30 jobs and have significant benefits for local farmers, students and businesses. It was developed with the help of a grant from the East Midlands Development Agency.
As well as offering local farmers the chance to offer meat with local provenance, butchery students from Brooksby Melton College will be trained there.
The abattoir, which took a year to build, has gained all the licences needed, and is now going through a 10-week proving period to gain accreditation to work with supermarkets and their suppliers, which the partners expect will provide the bulk of their work.
But working for individual farmers has always been part of the plan. The original idea for the abattoir came from Mike, who wanted somewhere to process his Longhorn cattle. He approached Andy, who slaughters up to 2,000 beef animals a year at Six Hills, and the idea grew from there.
"The site is excellent – right along the A46, with no houses nearby and space to expand in future," said Mike.
The abattoir is capable of killing several hundred cattle, 1,000 lambs and several thousand pigs a week, and has a suite of hanging and maturation stores, as well as full cutting and packing facilities.
"We aim to offer customers a service tailored to their needs," said Mike. "They can take the carcase away whole or we can cut and pack it for them. This sort of bespoke service should be a significant part of the business."
Andy Hawley said the abattoir will cut his farm's food miles. "My cattle used to travel at least 50 miles for slaughter," he said. "Many went to Spalding or Bedford; others went to abattoirs in Sheffield, Oldham and Clitheroe. If we slaughter them here and market them ourselves then we save a huge number of food miles.
"The retailers we are talking to want their animals slaughtered professionally and hung properly. We will be able to hang carcases for 28 days. The atmosphere in all our storage rooms is computer controlled, so we know everything will be spot on."