22/10/2026
This is something I donât think the general public really sees the seriousness of until youâre actually trying to sell meat direct from a farm. Certainly something I never really thought about until I actually started selling the meat boxes. Britain has lost more than 90% of its abattoirs since the 1970s. Weâve gone from around 2,500 abattoirs to just over 200 today.
Now put that alongside the fact that there are around 212,000 agricultural holdings in the UK.
Obviously not every one of those farms has livestock, and not every abattoir kills every species, but just as a comparison that works out at over 1,000 farm holdings for every abattoir we have left.
And actually, for livestock farmers the situation can be considerably worse than that number makes it sound.
Because having an abattoir somewhere in the country is absolutely no use if itâs three hours away, doesnât take cattle, doesnât take pigs, doesnât offer private kill, has a 6 week waiting list, wonât take small numbers, or returns everything in a way that doesnât work for farmers selling meat directly to customers.
There are farmers in this country who would genuinely LOVE to sell their own beef, pork or lamb directly to the public. Theyâve got the animals. Theyâve got the customers. Theyâre willing to do the paperwork, build the website, organise the butchery, packing, refrigeration and delivery, but they quite literally do not have reasonable access to an abattoir.
And once your nearest small abattoir shuts, it isnât as simple as âjust use another oneâ.
Suddenly the animals might have to travel considerably further. The farmer has more haulage costs, more time away from the farm, more stress organising slaughter slots, and often less flexibility over dates. For a small producer sending two or three cattle, a handful of pigs or a few lambs, those extra costs matter enormously.
It also disproportionately affects the exact kind of farming everyone keeps saying they want more of, smaller farms, local food, shorter supply chains, traceability and people buying meat directly from the person who actually reared it.
We are incredibly lucky with the abattoir we use. Itâs small, we know the people there, we trust how our animals are handled and it allows us to do what we do with our meat boxes.
Take that link out of the chain and RD Livestock meat boxes basically stop.
It really is that simple.
You can rear the best cattle in Britain. You can have 1,000 customers waiting to buy them. You can have the butchery, packing room, website and courier ready to go.
If you cannot legally and practically get that animal slaughtered locally, none of the rest of it matters. The animals being slaughtered are growing in numbers year on year, which means demand for meat is growing, but those animals are having to travel further and further to get there.
So when another little abattoir closes, it isnât just one business disappearing. It can take opportunities away from dozens or even hundreds of surrounding farms with it.
We talk an awful lot about supporting British farmers and buying British food. But if we want genuinely British meat and more farmers selling directly to consumers, we have to protect the infrastructure that actually makes that possible. And by buying your meat from places like us, you are directly supporting that part of the chain. đŹđ§đđđ
