Dunnabie Farm Shop

Many are born into the sector, others dip in and then discover it is for them and then there are others who end up becoming butchers as a consequence of several quirks of fate.

When they moved north from Skipton in February 2010 to take on a larger farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Jo Birtwistle and Andrew Whittam expected a quiet rural life in the rolling hills above Lockerbie.

To upsize they sold their 30 acre farm in Yorkshire to purchase 300 acres in Scotland. They rent a further 180 acres and in total they have 400 breeding ewes and 40 suckler cows.

Half the ewes are South Country Cheviots put to the Blue Faced Leicester to produce Cheviot 'mules'. The other half are Cheviot 'mules' put to the Texel tup yielding Texel cross fat lambs.

The cattle are either pure Angus or Angus cross. Dunnabie bring on all their own stock and use Aberdeen Angus bulls. No continental breeds are used, as the farm is more suited to native breeds of cattle.

Just prior to moving north Jo left her position as an Executive Director for a specialist medical recruitment agency, a job that took her out to India quite a lot. In Scotland Jo thought she would be assisting Andrew with the farm work and she had an inkling that she might retire but in fairness she was much too young for that.

Following the move she served as a post lady in Gretna on a six months contract. She then she set up a local milk round. The butchers' enterprise evolved when a small local butcher decided to retire creating an opportunity. Jo had worked there on a part time basis that had extended into plucking turkeys at Christmas. When Jo told Andrew about the possibility of taking on the butchers, he thought it sounded like a good idea.

That was in 2012. A shed on the farm was then turned into a processing room and new chills were fitted. Four months later Dunnabie Farm Shop was up and running selling from the farm and markets at Annan on a Saturday and Gretna on a Sunday, and weekly Farmers Markets.

In 2014 the next opportunity that arose was to open a butchers unit within a Costcutter store in Annan where they traded for 2 ½ years. Unfortunately the Costcutter store closed in April 2016 giving Jo just 3 weeks notice to find new premises within Annan. After a lot of hard work (during lambing time!) the team moved into the High Street Shop 3 weeks and one day later.

All lamb sold in the shop is supplied from the farm with the surplus lambs sold on through Border Counties Primestock, a Scottish farmer owned co-operative.

The beef supplied to the shop is born and bred on the farm and finished at 27-29 months. As Dunnabie is not self sufficient in beef the shortfall is augmented by stock from nearby Giles Lane's Raeburnhead Farm and Castletown Estates. The return trip from Lockerbie abattoir back to the processing unit at Dunnabie is 18 miles. Beef is matured for one week at the abattoir and a further two in the chills at the farm.

Pigs are supplied from the McArthur family farm at Todholes, Eastriggs and supplemented by Shaws of Lockerbie.

So as one would expect the provenance story of Dunnabie Farm Shop is compelling. Jo is confident that it makes a difference when your meat comes from local farms and those selling it know exactly how it was reared, handled and matured before, with great care, it is presented for sale. She describes what is important:-

“The older generation are more interested in knowing where their meat comes from and often look at the board and comment on whose pigs we are using this week or which breed of cattle it is. The younger generation we are teaching slowly but surely to appreciate this.”

Andrew is equally impressed to learn that discerning customers appear to turn up out of the blue as soon as there is something different on offer:-

“I don't know how they find out but if they hear that we have Highlanders then they come in for that beef.”

Although he points out that the shop's greatest challenge comes from Aldi, Tesco and Farm Foods he is confident that those who taste and try his beef and lamb notice the better quality. “We have to be competitive but we have to continually find new customers to convince that we sell better quality.”

“We give customers what they want” stresses Jo, “but we have to attract them in to a) realise it is good quality meat that is tasty and looks good and b) we are not as expensive as they think we are.

“If you are on the high street they think that you are expensive. We have to be careful with our prices because if we put them up too high, then customers are not going to come in.”

But from far and wide customers do come in and naturally given their location so close to the border, a good number of travellers make a point of stopping in Annan to purchase top quality meat on their way south.

Jo and Andrew are great believers in Facebook and use that medium to broadcast their offers and their unique selling points. Regular customers can come from as far away as Carlisle and there is a good trade from local caravan parks. Every Thursday Jo sells from their purpose built trailer at Peebles Market and at weekends from the farmers markets at Lockerbie and Langholm. Up to a third of the business can be generated from these markets.

For Christmas trade Dunnabie source free range turkeys from KellyBronze at Dunlop, free range chickens and duck eggs come from Linda Dick.

Hen Eggs are from local producer PS Poultry in Waterbeck. Locally grown tomatoes and strawberries come from Cochrane's at Longtown.

The butchers' business has three employees, John (above) who is the main butcher, works partially processing at the farm and the rest of the week running the shop, Jillian works in the shop and Craig (below) who has just achieved his Level 2 Meat & Poultry Skills qualification is shadowing John.

Dunnabie make all their own burgers and sausages and these include Steak, Steak Haggis & Cheese, Steak & Black Pudding, Pork & Apple, Pork Bacon & Cheese, Lamb & Mint and Gluten free burgers. Pork, Beef, Cumberland, Italian, Chinese, Boerwors, Chilli, Bacon & Cheese, Haggis, Breakfast sausages, Lamb & Mint, Lamb Kofta, Pork & Leek, Pork & Iron Brew and Lorne sausage.

Dunnabie Farm Shop listen carefully to their customers comments and one of the responses in May 2017 was branching out into making their own pies.

The range of pies is vast. Scotch, Steak, Sausage Rolls, Bridies, Steak Rounds, Mince Rounds, Chicken & Leek, Macaroni, Quiches, Scotch Eggs and a couple that are Dunnabie specialities – a Lamb Hot Pot pie and a Chicken Écosse which is chicken with haggis and a peppercorn sauce.

The most recent new products have been Oven Ready meals. Jo explained:-

“Customers come to us in search of inspiration. We can now offer them quick and easy solutions, along with cooking instructions. We can also supply flavoured potatoes to go with the meals. It is just convenience.”

So the route from farm to fork is completed. Not the intention at the outset but a wonderful result at the end of the day.

The upland farm has a market that appreciates the quality it produces and the butchers business has the quality to produce a loyal customer base, now firmly established in Annan High Street. It has all come a long way since the couple in Skipton thought that they might move up to Scotland for a quiet life!