The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2020 - Issue 69 | Page 54

54 ANNA’S HAPPY TROTTERS JUN/JUL 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
HAPPY
HEALTHY PIGS
SEE MEAT
SALES SOAR
Chris Berry talks with Anna Longthorp
of Anna’s Happy Trotters.
PORK has arguably the most distinctive
taste and for many the best of all meats
from the four main sectors of beef, pork,
lamb and poultry. It is also definitely the
most versatile with its long-established
tradition of pigs being consumable from
the cheek to the tail.
Anna Longthorp and her brother Jon
have grown up knowing this and are now
fourth generation farmers following on
from their parents Richard and Diana who
have farmed the 1800-acre arable and pig
farm at Burland just out of Howden for
many years.
Today it is Jon who has responsibility
for the arable acreage and the pig breeding
units at home and further afield while
Anna has developed her own pig farming
and pigmeat selling enterprise based
around free range pigs under the moniker
Anna’s Happy Trotters. She opened
her own café/restaurant Anna’s Happy
Kitchen two years again in Howden, at
what was the popular Coastways Café.
Anna realised very quickly, on making the
leap into farming, that her love of pigs was
all very well but to make a strong business
model she needed to ditch the wellies and
get out of the muddy fields; and instead get
out on to the road, phone, email, website
and social media in order for her enterprise
to make the right headway.
‘There’s nothing I love more than
being with my pigs,’ says Anna. ‘And in
the early days of Anna’s Happy Trotters
I loved attending farmers markets and
food festivals to build the brand but I also
realised I could end up being a busy fool.
When you’re aiming to expand a business
you need to look at where your energies
are best employed and you don’t
expand, the way I wanted to, by simply
being around your livestock or setting up
tradestands at 5 in a morning.’
‘Looking after your customers, understanding
their needs and supplying what
they want is number one, two and three,
and without that you might as well stay
at home, sit on your hands and smile
longingly at your pigs. I’m out on the road
most days talking with my customers
including everyone from the Yorkshire
Agricultural Society’s brilliant farm shop
Fodder in Harrogate to more locally Bert’s
Barrow in Hillam and Monk Fryston.’
‘You build relationships on the back
of firstly having a great product, then
being able to offer continuity of supply
and quality. By talking with customers
you find out what it is that customers are
concerned about and animal welfare is
right up there. Consumers of any meat
are more concerned than ever about
where their food is coming from and have
the animals been looked after correctly.
They want to know that what their eating
meets all ethical standards, as well as
tasting excellent.’
‘That’s where our Red Tractor Assured
and Freedom Foods accreditations really
help and we have also won a Good
Pig Award from Compassion in World
Farming.’
High health status is Anna’s main
concern for her pigs that she began
twelve years ago and sees her with
three separate locations where
contract farmers now rear them. Anna
visits them all each week.
‘In the interests of pig health,
security and for the overall business
it is better not to have all of your pigs
in one place. I still help with vaccinations
when they arrive from Jon’s
breeding units at four weeks old. The
contract farmers do a great job, which
allows me to concentrate my efforts
elsewhere.’
Continued on page 56
Abattoir & Meat
Wholesalers
We supply high quality beef, pork and lamb
through an efficient distribution service where
standards are second to none.
Selling a range of fresh meats prepared in modern
hygienic premises to customer requirements.
Best Wishes to Anna Longthorp and all at
Anna’s Happy Trotters.
Call us on 01904 728 246
www.atravesandson.co.uk
Abattoir & Meat Wholesalers,
95 Main Street, Escrick, York, YO19 6TP