CATERING TRIAL SHOWS EAGERNESS AMONGST LOCAL CHEFS FOR HILL LAMB

Hill sheep farming is crucial to the landscape and culture of the Cumbria Fells and Dales area and yet its future is under threat from a whole range of influences. Even before foot and mouth, hill sheep farm incomes were in decline and there was great concern about the rising average age of hill sheep farmers and the loss of skills as young people leave the area. Another threat is the Mid Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy which will come into effect next year and will mean that the income a farmer receives from subsidies will not be directly related to the number of sheep kept on the farm. The market for Cumbrian hill lamb has in recent years been heavily dependent on the export trade for light lambs. This has provided reasonable returns in the past two seasons but is subject to exchange rate fluctuations and disruptions to exports. All these factors make it important that other new markets are explored.

Veronica Waller of the Cumbria Fells and Dales LEADER + Programme has been working with five hill sheep farmer groups since she started in May last year, including representatives from the Herdwick, Rough Fell and Swaledale sheep breed associations and two local area groups from the Lake District. Many of the farmers expressed an interest in exploring the local catering sector as a potential market given the number of tourists that visit Cumbria and the abundance of high quality hotels and restaurants. In response to this, in October 2003, Veronica asked Voluntary Action Cumbria to apply to LEADER + and Rural Regeneration Cumbria for a grant to help fund a large scale market research project which involved contacting 200 catering outlets in Cumbria and the North West. Of particular interest to the research was whether local chefs were interested in sourcing hill lamb, particularly branded according to local hill breed - Herdwick, Rough Fell and Swaledale, or local areas such as an individual Lake District valley.

The market research found that there was significant interest from a high proportion of the chefs contacted. This was sufficiently encouraging for the research to be followed by a trial marketing period to test this potential demand, set quality standards and to more accurately quantify supply chain costs. Further funding was applied for from the LEADER + programme and was used to operate a small scale demonstration project which trial marketed Cumbrian hill lambs in a period from January to May this year. This involved sales of twenty lambs per week - five from each of four of the farmer groups, not including the Cumbria Swaledale Trust who wished to undertake a separate trial for light lambs from mid July to mid September.

The trial used Aireys low throughput slaughterhouse near High Newton in south Cumbria from the end of January through to mid April. The Meat and Livestock Commission classification service were employed to independently grade and weigh the lambs and they were then hung for eight days prior to cutting, with shearlings (older lambs between 15 months and 2 years old) hung for between 14-21 days. A butcher was brought in to Aireys to cut the lambs for the trial and each cut was weighed to provide data for the project. During the trial, the lambs were sold to 35 hotels in the Lake District and Cumbria and the original market researcher, catering butcher Paul Hevey, was contracted to sell and distribute the lambs to the catering outlets he felt were most interested in the product during the market research.

The catering outlets involved in the trial have given very positive feedback on the product and, as well as giving favourable comments on quality, especially appear to have appreciated the individual farmer traceability. The Kendal Rough Fell lamb was particularly popular because of its consistent size and weight and the Herdwick because of its association with the Lake District and high public profile.

As well as the generally positive feedback, there were a number of particularly encouraging results from the trial. Nick Foster from the Drunken Duck at Ambleside won Pub Chef of the Year 2004 at the Meatex Exhibition in March. His winning recipe used rack of herdwick shearling sourced from Eric Taylforth in Langdale supplied by the trial. The Watermill at Ings near Staveley took lamb from all four of the farmer groups and this resulted in them changing their menu to incorporate more traditional dishes such as Lancashire Hot Pot. The chef, Phil Lishman, described the lamb that he had been getting from the trial as "fantastic" both in terms of taste and flavour and feels the lamb was instrumental in the pub getting a very favourable write up in the national Guardian magazine during the trial period.

The lambs from the farmer groups varied in terms of consistency of weight with the heavier Kendal Rough Fell group lambs and the heavier Herdwick shearlings providing the highest return from the catering market. The trial has demonstrated that, with supply chain costs the same per lamb regardless of weight, the margin over the live auction price is more difficult to achieve for the lighter purebred hill lambs. The trial has enabled the farmer groups to compare the final catering value of different weights of lamb and has also highlighted critical issues such as the cost of distribution and the time taken to obtain payment from the catering outlets.

The next stage is for the groups to decide how to go forward into next season potentially contracting with an existing Food Service Company to sell their lambs into the catering market. Veronica Waller of LEADER + said: "the market research and the catering trial have provided the groups with a huge amount of information about the catering sector and about the potential returns from this market. We have been very encouraged by the positive reaction from local chefs and the challenge is now to put into place arrangements for next season that can take forward this work on a commercial basis."

At the time of writing, the Swaledale group are currently operating a similar trial looking at marketing a lightweight Swaledale lamb into premium catering outlets for a limited period between mid July and Mid September. The results of this trial will be reported in a future newsletter.

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