Welcome to NFU Shed Talks

With Great British Beef Week just around the corner, Shed Talks takes a look beyond the farm gate and into the less visible parts of the supply chain that underpin the beef sector.

Hosts Josh Redford and Naomi Williams-Roberts sit down with Dave Stringer, the Butchery Apprenticeship Trainer at Dovecote Park, which provides British beef, veal, and venison to Waitrose nationwide. Dave talks about Dovecote Park’s fully funded and bespoke training programme, designed to tackle the challenge of sourcing and retaining skilled labour in specialist areas such as butchery. He also discusses how strong uptake from women is helping to broaden participation in a part of the industry that has historically been male-dominated.

The hosts also speak with Rob Lewis, a beef and sheep farmer in Wales who bought his local pub, the Triangle Inn, in 2022. Rob explains how he uses the pub as a direct route to the beef market, from rearing cattle and working with trusted local abattoirs and butchers, to serving the finished product in his pub, giving customers a clear line of sight from field to plate.

Josh then connects to Sweden to speak with Jörgen Eriksson, a dairy farmer taking part in an event called Kosläpp, or ‘cow release’, in May. After videos of cows being let outside for the first time in spring went viral on social media in recent years, farmers in Sweden have started hosting events where visitors can watch their cows being released onto pasture in person, with the largest events welcoming around 10,000 people. Jörgen explains how a Kosläpp event works and why people enjoy them so much.

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