New ‘farm to fork’ concept launched by Tunstall Meat Company farm and butcher’s shop in Catterick

“It means that your sheep and cattle are fed nothing other than grass and conserved grass/silage throughout their lives,” says Megan. “There’s no hard feed, it’s very much about grass, silage, hay and a little bit of mineral licks.

“We decided to go Pasture for Life certified, which is very similar to an organic certification, because we were looking for something that set our produce and livestock apart.

Tunstall Road Farm majors on native and rare breeds with pedigree Hereford and Belted Galloway cattle, Hampshire Down sheep and Berkshire pigs. Megan, who took over the management of the farm eighteen months ago says that they have made several changes in her seven years in Catterick.

“The farm runs to around 500 acres, but with the arable acreage of 250 acres being farmed by agricultural contractors my responsibility is for the 250 acres we use as our grazing platform and 40 acres we take from the arable rotation each year putting in a cover crop and grazing stock across it.

“We currently have 200 head of cattle which are predominantly pedigree Hereford and Belted Galloway with around a 50/50 split and a small percentage of cattle crossed between the two. Five years ago every cow on the farm would have been housed. For the last four years the Belties have stayed out all year and the Herefords have only been housed just prior to calving.

“We’ve gone more towards the Belted Galloways because they are hardier, whereas with the Herefords it all depends on how hard I want to push them, plus the weather. The Belties will manage with a couple of twigs and a good view.

“We’ve tightened up on spring calving in the last couple of years and the bulls are only in for 6-7 weeks. We’ve also started autumn calving of anything that is not in calf for March as well as regularly bringing heifers into the programme as well. This is important for year-round supply of the shop. I now have 57 calving in spring and 30 in autumn.

“The Herefords are bulled at 12 months old and I put the heifers to a Beltie for first calving. It’s a bit of a kindness, as I worry about the Hereford’s first calving of great big Hereford heads.

Megan says outdoor lambing has seen her appreciation for the Hampshire Down breed accelerate.

“Our Hampshire Down flock now runs to 70 pedigree ewes and 50 mainly Cheviot crosses put to our pedigree ram. We’ve retained all females in the last couple of years since we moved from indoor to outdoor lambing, which now starts 1 April.

“Inside they could be quite fizzy sheep, but since treating them once or twice a day in the field my lambing difficulties have gone from 50 per cent of the flock to 3 per cent. Last year’s springtime was a real test because their lambs were born into 6 weeks of pure rain, but they all managed really well.

Megan says she won’t move away wholly from the Hampshire Down-cross-Cheviots she also has.

“While the pedigrees are our core focus, I do think that hybrid vigour gives you something extra in your stock and I’ll retain whitefaced crossed ewes.

Megan talks of a similar story with the pigs.

“We have 10 pedigree Berkshire sows and four crossbreds that are all crossed back to the Berkshire and again are all outdoor reared, we generally finish around 200 pigs a year. It’s an all-year round pig enterprise with litters being born regularly.

“We work really closely with the Berkshire Society. Boars are not as highly valued as sows and so the genetics can get lost. A couple of years ago we ended up with a Freight Train boar and when a national survey found there were only two in the country we had loads of people coming to buy.

“We’re also finding that our system is now working for the breed. We’ve always retained our bigger gilts and until recently they have been considered too big for the breed standard, but the society has recently been concerned about how small the pigs were getting and now we’ve an influx of society members wanting to buy the bigger pigs we have.

Everything produced at Tunstall Road Farm is destined for Robert’s butcher’s shop, owned with farm owners John and Helen Bell, and Megan says that her job is to match the butchery’s demands, which includes a mix of online and over-the counter sales.

“Every animal that comes off the farm goes through Tunstall Meat Company,” says Megan. “Unless we keep as replacement breeding stock or sell excess into other herds and flocks.

“John (Bell) always said that the farm would grow with the shop’s demand and it continues to do so.

Robert is a proud Dutchman who comes from a background of being head chef on round-the-world cruise liners and executive head chef at Newcastle United football club. The idea of turning to butchery came through his friendship with John and Helen.

Robert says that Pasture for Life is already a winning idea for Tunstall Meat Company.

“It’s definitely a winning formula. We had our official online launch of our produce as Pasture for Life last weekend and it created a real buzz. We’ve been Pasture for Life for a while but before we started raving about it we had to make sure we had enough supply, which thanks to Megan and her team of Kate and Lee we now have.

“We have a growing clientele for wholly grass-fed produce but Pasture for Life accreditation gives us something different. There’s not much accredited in this area, nor in the country.

“I’ve learned so much more about livestock and I now see a huge difference in meat and how stock is reared, particularly beef maturing between 24-30 months. Pasture for Life is the best you can get. If I was back in the kitchen, I would always want to buy the meat produced here because it is being produced in the healthiest, most environmentally way possible.

“Our online shop accounts for 96-97 per cent of our sales. We have a local van driver and also deliver next day anywhere in the UK using sheep’s wool insulation and cardboard. We don’t use plastic where we don’t have to.

Megan comes from South Africa and had previously been involved with the equine world, as she was when she first started at Tunstall Road.

“I’m very surprised that I enjoy farming more than horses. I enjoy livestock’s practicality and versatility and I’m really proud of what we do, what we produce and Pasture for Life.