The Meat & Tatie Shop: How Yorkshire farm shop's pride in its beef herd is reaping rewards

“The idea came in December 2023. We’ve sold Christmas trees from Hawkcliffe for over 40 years so people know where we are and we thought that selling our own beef raised from our suckler herd of 75 cattle could be a product that would put us more in control of our future.

Dan says the reaction he and Sarah have received from customers has been amazing.

“The feedback we’re getting on the beef has just blown us away. We knew it was good quality and people are just loving it. Our customers are fantastic.

“We make a point of thanking everybody and feel like we’re being rewarded for our hard work, rather than being just at the mercy of supermarkets. We now feel we’re in a better place, but the biggest thing for us is the joy it brings us to supply good food. It’s all about the flavour.

Sarah, who has worked in retail previously, says that next weekend’s new weekly opening, which will see ‘The Meat & Tatie Shed’ opening every Friday, Saturday and Sunday has come about through customer demand.

“People want their meat fresh and they see it that way on our meat counter. We’ve been open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday every fortnight up until now, but this coming Friday 11 April we’re going weekly because our counters have been cleared every fortnight and it is that freshness and seeing the meat looking so good that makes the difference.

The Meat & Tatie Shed name came about as a harping back to days gone by at Hawkcliffe when Dan recalls his father, David, used to sell potatoes from the farm. They’re now back selling potatoes as well as lamb, pork, sausages, eggs and a whole host of other farm produce.

“We used to sell taties for years when we had a dairy herd and were milking cows. We sold eggs as well. Now we’re back selling all of those and more from local suppliers. The name sounded just right.

For Dan, the move to selling beef from his herd that grazes on the slopes of Hawkcliffe and Whinburn in the Aire Valley is a source of real pride, as is being able to talk with customers who are interested in where meat comes from.

“From the moment I left school we got into suckler cows. The dairy cows had gone and as a family we had moved from living at Hawkcliffe up to Whinburn where dad had built a house, but with cattle at both farms.

“I was always destined to be the farmer. I enjoy farming and even when it’s hard work there’s never a point I don’t.

“It's a good thing that people can see the cows and relate it to the meat, because that’s what they’re getting. They know where it has come from, that it’s not come from around the world. It’s from these fields. I care about my herd, I know all of my cows, and I’m proud of what we produce.

Hawkcliffe was home to a dairy herd of 60-70 cows until the mid-80s, the Thompsons have also had sheep previously, but Dan has always concentrated on cattle.

“I try to keep numbers at around 75 suckler cows as that’s about right for the land we have,” says Dan. “I don’t want The Meat & Tatie Shed to be a big farm shop, like a supermarket in the countryside. I just want people to try our beef because it tastes really good.

“All our cows and heifers are put to the bull, there’s nothing AI’d. We have two bulls at present, one a pure Limousin and the other a Limousin-crossed-Belgian Blue. It’s a closed herd. The only thing we buy in is a new bull, we buy new bulls mainly from Gisburn livestock market.

“Our cows are really strong and tough, which they have to be here on our land that slopes down the valley. But cow longevity is something special for us too. Our eldest cow is 20 years old and she’s just had a lovely calf. You couldn’t pick her out of my cows, she still looks that good. That’s because we look after our cows and we don’t push them. I like my old cows, they’re my friends. I don’t want to get rid of them and there’s often no need to. If I can get them in calf, I will.

“I like my Limmie calves as they come out small. All I’m after is a calf that’s alive and because they do come out well it’s rare we need a vet to come and we only need a small number of replacements to the herd each year because of the herd’s longevity.

It is Dan’s consideration for his cattle and his realisation that better taste comes from longer matured beef that is proving a winning combination with customers.

“We’re getting so many customers telling us they really can taste the difference between our slowly matured, not pushed cattle and what they may have previously bought in a supermarket. We will take all our cattle until between 28-30 months and we still don’t have problem if they go to 32 months.

The cattle on the farm are Dan’s passion and he doesn’t have any outside help, although he and Sarah have two very young sons – Warwick and Austin – who just love being with their dad.

“We run the whole farm on a shoestring, we don’t get in contractors. We don’t have any employees. I cut the grass, handle muckspreading, fix anything that needs fixing, put buildings up myself. If there’s a way of saving money we save money.

“We harvest 1000 round bales of hay from first cut in June, which our cows find fantastic, and make them last longer. They eat it, sit down on it and keep warm with it. We also take 200-300 bales of silage second cut which we want dry. We buy a rolled wheat and barley mix from a farmer in Otley that I pick up and we also buy fodder beet.

The business is run as a family partnership with Dan’s parents David and Pauline, and Sarah and Dan all involved.

Sarah says The Meat & Tatie Shed has already proved an exhilarating experience and that she and Dan are excited about next weekend’s gearing up for every week opening.

“We have strap line to our promotions that says, ‘Eat locally, know your farmer’ and we do a lot on social media about me, Dan & the children. People love to see us all on the farm.

“It’s great for us to see people who are so appreciative of what we do. We now feel that we can move forward, more in control.