Young farming couple expand meat box range ahead of Christmas

Selling beef and lamb via meat boxes with guidance from a mentor is helping new entrants to livestock farming reap a premium price for their stock.

George Sturla and Holly Blockley run a flock of 100 Lleyn-cross ewes on land at Holywell, Flintshire, tupping the flock to home-bred Beltex rams.

They also have a herd of 12 Aberdeen Angus suckler cows, and are introducing Longhorn genetics for the first time this year to produce superior beef.

To increase the profit margin in their business, the couple have been selling lamb direct to consumers in meat boxes branded at Beeches Meats since October 2022.

“There had been several times when I would go to the mart and think the lambs should have made a better price than they did so we decided to have a go at direct sales," George explains.

This proved to be very successful and they were keen to expand the business.

They accessed the Farming Connect farmer-to-farmer mentoring service, which is funded by the Welsh government.

The couple were matched with Sam Pearson, a Welsh beef and dairy farmer whose key specialisms include direct sales and marketing.

Sam visited the couple at The Beeches and provided what George describes as “invaluable guidance and support."

“Sam has given us some excellent ideas to follow up and examples of other established businesses to research as we discussed with him how we could expand our range by including beef."

These mentoring conversations gave George and Hollie the confidence to go ahead with developing their direct meat sales business.

They report that sales have been very strong. “People have been pre-ordering for their Christmas meal," says George.

"We are starting to get customers from further afield, sending boxes recently to Peterborough and Cornwall, using wool to insulate the boxes to keep the meat cool."

Although he says he would have expanded the business without the mentoring, having input from someone with expertise in this area has helped to avoid pitfalls and to capitalise on sales.

“I think we would have given it a go ourselves but having Sam as a mentor has definitely given us confidence to go ahead with making these changes," he says.

Sam discussed options for websites and using social media and how to communicate with customers.

Although George didn’t grow up on a farm, his childhood summers were spent helping his grandfather and uncle on their farm in North Wales.

He later graduated from the Royal Agricultural College with a degree in Rural Land Management and worked at Strutt & Parker.

But he left his career in land management to work full time in agriculture, alongside a full time job as a sales representative for a livestock feed company.