Mar
04
Quality food you can trust
2009 | Filed under Company Spotlight | (0) 
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Having had several retailers extol its products to her recently, Kathy Jensen decided to pay a visit to Cloughbane Farm, just outside Pomeroy, where she met up with mother and son, Lorna and Richard Robinson, to find out more about this rapidly growing farm-based enterprise.
The Robinson family has been farming at Cloughbane for around 150 years and is now into its fourth generation. The family comprises Sam and Lorna and their sons, Richard and Robert, while the farm extends to 185 acres and focuses on beef, lamb and free-range egg production. “We have our own flock of 150 Texel ewes, which start lambing around March and continue on into the late summer, so we have fresh lamb all year round,” said Richard.
“The cattle – mostly Aberdeen Angus / Limousin crosses that give a great balance between lean and fat – are bought in as stores and reared on until ready to kill. We only buy heifers, as we believe they produce a more tender, sweeter meat, and we only retain for ourselves the best quality carcasses. Anything that doesn’t meet our own high specification goes on to other processors. The same applies to the lambs – we only keep the best quality female carcasses for our own business.”
So, what exactly is the Robinsons’ business? Well, up until 2002, it was, pure and simply, a farm, selling on its beef and lamb to the factories and its free-range eggs to another wholesaler. Today, though, while a large percentage of the eggs are still sold on to another supplier, except for carcasses they reject for themselves, all the beef and lamb is processed and sold either through their own farm shop or, increasingly, through other retailers who form a growing part of the customer base.
GETTING STARTED
The farm shop and subsequent development of the wholesale business came about by accident rather than design, as Lorna explained: “In 2002, our local council in Dungannon decided to set up a farmers’ market and invited us to be founder members and help it get off the ground. So, we had some of our own lambs prepared by a local butcher and the whole thing snowballed from there. The lamb was very popular, but people knew we also reared beef and asked if we could supply that too.
“Our friendly butcher helped us out, training Richard and Robert to cut up the lamb carcasses. He also offered us a serve-over counter that he no longer needed himself and we converted an outbuilding on the farm into our first small farm shop. Beef carcasses require more knowledge and experience to cut up, so we employed a part-time butcher to do that and took an advert in the local paper to let people know the shop was open two evenings a week and Saturdays.
“It was a very steep learning curve, as it was all so new to us, but business grew steadily and, in 2004, we converted a larger building (formerly a pig house, then a sheep pen) into what is now the shop, which features a 12-foot butchery serve-over counter, two other chiller cabinets for our own and other locally sourced products, plus some ambient lines. The facilities also include a large butchery preparation area and cold stores for hanging the carcasses to mature. Beef is matured for 28 days, lamb for 10-14 days and all is dry hung on the bone, which we believe makes for a much better quality end product.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
“Being out here in the back of beyond, we need to really give people a reason to go out of their way to shop with us,” continued Lorna. “We have therefore set out our stall on providing only the finest quality products, where the difference really is in the taste. As farmers first and foremost, the best thing for us is that we have complete control of our product from the field through to the customer.
“Most farmers put a tremendous amount of investment and effort into rearing their livestock but have no input into the final product or its price once the animal is bought by the factory. Having that control ourselves gives us a reason to get up in the morning – it’s very satisfying to make all the decisions through the whole supply chain – as well as maximising our investment in the farm.
“We take huge pride in what we do. It’s not just about money, it’s more about delivering customer satisfaction and it gives us a great feeling when people tell us that this was great or that was delicious. Comments like that spur us and we would never compromise on our principles of only working with and supplying the best possible produce.”
HOME-CURED BACON
And supplying the best possible produce extends beyond the beef and lamb reared on Cloughbane Farm. For example, the shop also stocks free-range and barn-reared chickens from Maine Valley and William Dickey in Cullybackey. “These chickens are allowed to mature more naturally and slowly than those reared for the factories, so they are larger and have lots of natural flavour,” explained Richard.
“We get our pork from Armstrong Meats, outside Lisburn. It comes to us as fresh loin and we then cure our own bacon. We have three cures – a dry cure, a sweet cure and smoked – all of which are done naturally, without added water, and which are very popular with our customers.
“We now employ four full-time butchers and an apprentice, who prepare all the cuts for the serve-over counter in the shop and pre-pack for our retail customers, including steaks, roasts, mince, meatballs, burgers, stir-fries, kebabs, etc. The fresh meat offering is further complemented by locally grown fruit and vegetables, dairy products, juices, chutneys, pickles, jams and preserves, etc. For instance, a lady from Magherafelt supplies us with wonderful jams, while our tray-bakes come from Linda’s Bakery, Dungannon, another farm diversification business.
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