The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Rosemary on July 02, 2012, 12:01:54 pm
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If the closure of St Andrews abattoir goes ahead with no other provision being made, it will be a huge blow to smallscale food producers and butchers in the area. Around 15 high street butchers use the abattoir and numerous farmers. If it closes, it means that animals will have to go to Dunblane, with the inevitable impact on animal welfare.
The abattoir at Galashiels closed recently with the same impact in that area.
We need to do something but what?
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it is all good and well to have a campaign to save it but and it is a big but if it is operating at a a loss who is going to fund it to keep it going if it needs updating to EU standards will it have the throughput to justify the expense and upgrading any new abattoir that has been built so far has closed due to one reason or another
new and upgraded premises cost many millions and the running costs are hundred's of thousands per year
in the grand scheme of things to travel to dunblane is not that far compared to the miles that other pigs sheep and cattle travel both live and as carcasses
st Andrews is a loss for putting sows away as well and if wishaw is closing as well the only alternative is home kill or cheale
yes rosemary just what to do :farmer:
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THE 1 in granton on spey closed we naw go 40 miles and it is run by tesco £40 pound avarage animal .
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THE 1 in granton on spey closed we naw go 40 miles and it is run by tesco £40 pound avarage animal .
Millers of Speyside havent closed I dont think? they are an abbatoir in Grantown on Spey
here is there weblink for their info on private kills.
http://www.millersofspeyside.co.uk/private-kill-butchery.php (http://www.millersofspeyside.co.uk/private-kill-butchery.php)
was this another abbatoir in Grantown that closed, VF?
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st Andrews is a loss for putting sows away as well and if wishaw is closing as well the only alternative is home kill or cheale
Not so Roberto :o
You can have your sows slaughtered at Shotts abattoir ;)
Following the fiasco with my sow and Wishaw abattoir ::) both Jessie and Davie at Shotts agreed that they would start to take large pigs, which they do now. We've sent 3 bigger pigs so far and all has been great. They go through on the cattle lines so there is a slightly higher charge (same as with Wishaw) - but the service is available :thumbsup:
I don't know whether any sort of campaign would achieve a result for St Andrew's Rosemary :-\
At the end of the day if your (family ?) business was losing money to the extent where you felt pressured into closing it would be a sad situation to be in and definately not a decision that would have been made easily by those running it, I wouldn't think. Feeling under pressure to remain open when in that situation could be even worse for the business and the people involved in it.
Dunno what to suggest :'(
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I'm not sure that the closure can be averted. M&S and Premier Inns want the site and have allegedly offered £4million for the site. It's in a residential area (well, houses have been built around the abattoir over the years) so I can't see the neighbours objecting ::)
It's whether there's a case for a new abattoir, otherwise it's Dunblane or up Aberdeenshire way for us, with all the implications for animal welfare. And what about the so called "local food" agenda? Grantown is 130 miles from us, whereas St Andrews is 40.
St Andrews today - where next? Galashiels abattoir closed recently (the man who closed it is also a shareholder in St Andrews). Folk round there now have to go to Wishaw / Shotts or into England, and if they do the latter they cannot sell their produce as "Scotch" because it has been killed and processed in England.
Funny, someone contacted me about Gala abattoir recently and I was a bit "ach well, we're OK here" than the news about St Andrews broke, and it made me think. This is a Scotland side issue - a letter to Mr Lochhead might be a start.
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well rosemary i don't know if gala was owned by lawrie and symington but if it was it would indicate they want out of slaughtering and cutting i do know they have st Andrews wishaw and Irvin's of blairgowrie one of the key men at wishaw took on the lease of Irvin's
there were 19 slaughterhouses in Scotland but not all doing private kill at one time logistically we were well served with facility's not any longer but all are running below capacity even the cattle ones
ABP at bathgate was mothballed many years ago but that only did sheep and cattle
bridge of Allen is only cattle
never having been to st Andrews from what has been described i would say it is a bad neighbour especially for st Andrews the once i was at Irvin's in December it was honking and that is in a built up area as well linlithgow old slaughterhouse was also in a built up area that was why they got planning on the site but had to fight long and hard to secure the new site which went tits up and is now the base for cambell prime meats there pigs come from ardrossan so not very local
one thing getting a campain to keep it going another thing the owners wanting to keep it running that is the important thing :farmer:
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Well after having my sheep, goats and pigs done at Gala (about 10 miles down the road) we now have a 140 mile round trip to any of the nearest abattoirs (Shotts, Carlisle, down Newcastle way etc..). To say that I am pissed off is putting it mildly, but I know that nothing is going to happen to open a new abattoir in the Borders. Writing letters etc to MSPs will not do any thing - after all we smallholders are not really bringing in any amounts of viable business...
We are seriously considering homekill (not for pigs, but mutton and goat kids)... as bringing a couple of wethers (or goat kids) to Shotts is now completely out of the picture...