A couple who're thinking inside the box as they grow farm to fork business

WHAT started off as just a hobby for the Wainwright family is now developing into a farm to fork business – thanks to last year’s coronavirus lockdown.

Neil and Claire Wainwright bought a handful of in-calf Belted Galloway females in 2015 to graze some of the paddocks on Castle Farm, Low Hesket, near Carlisle.

The farming business had reached a crossroads with the loss of the milk contract on their herd of 200 pedigree Holsteins, which coincided with Neil and his son Henry, now 24, taking on the job of managing a nearby AD plant.

“We lost our milk contract and we had to make a quick decision about whether we wanted to continue in dairying. We sold up in 2014 and we bought the Belties in 2015 so that we could have some stock on the non-cropping areas of the farm,” said Neil.

As the herd grew so did the Wainwrights’ love of the quiet and easily managed traditional native breed.

It was during last year’s lockdown that their daughter Connie began to work on a business and marketing plan to make direct sales of boxed beef to local customers – and Castle Belties was born.

Connie, 26, has a degree in business management from Northumbria University in Newcastle and for her job as a global pharmaceutical supply manager for GSK, she was based in London until last March.

The pandemic meant she had to work from home and she decided to move back to the family farm in Cumbria.

“Because I was away from home and away from the farming community in London, I noticed there were a lot of questions and curiosity from friends and people on social media about where their food came from. There was also a lot of propaganda,” said Connie.

So she took the opportunity of bridging the gap in the public’s perception of British farming and she started the Castle Belties Instagram page, sharing images of the Castle Belted Galloway herd and the practices on-farm used to produce the prime beef.

It has been the Instagram page ‘@castlebelties’, along with Facebook and their website castlebelties.com that Connie has used to market the Beltie brand and develop the direct sales.

What really helped to boost the brand was a video Connie posted on the Instagram page of Neil scratching their red stock bull’s back, which went ‘viral’ with more than 250,000 views. This, along with photos and videos showing Henry’s good nature with the cattle and his stockmanship – demonstrating the respect shown to the cattle – means the page now has more than 4,300 followers.

“I started working on the idea in my spare time last March. We got some great help and advice from family member and butcher Philip Cranston,” said Connie.

“I wanted to develop the brand and do the costings before we started pushing the sales, so we didn’t sell our first beef until December last year – and it went within 24 hours!

“We sold two steers in December, a further seven from January to April and we have another three we are about to market. We didn’t think it would sell so well and, in fact, we have hardly tasted any of the beef ourselves,” added Connie. This was boosted by Claire’s word-of-mouth marketing, a fitness instructor using her established network of clients.

The Wainwrights farm 400 acres at Castle Farm and Wragmire Head a couple of miles away. Arable cropping of winter and spring barley and wheat, as well as some ground rented out for potatoes, are in the grassland rotation. Any surplus crop is bought by Hayton Agriculture for the AD plant.

To enhance the environment, the farm goes into Entry Level Stewardship next January and the Wainwrights will undergo a hedging programme.

About 50 beef calves a year are bought in to rear and sell either store or finished with Henry doing the majority of the cattle management.

The Belted Galloway herd was established with a small number heifers and cows in calf bought from Max Welters at Roadhead in north Cumbria.

“I have always liked the look of the Belted Galloway – they are easy on the eye. Because our farm is in the village, the local people like to see the cattle out grazing the fields,” said Neil.

The Castle herd now numbers 25 cows calving this spring, including other bought in females and home-bred heifers bred by stock bulls Poplar Red One and Carstairs Maestro.

There is good demand for the red and white Belties, which are more scarce than the black and whites and so far Poplar Red One has sired about three red and white heifer calves each year.

Heifer calves are kept as replacements to build up herd numbers – the target being 50 breeding females. The cattle are long-lived and in the next couple of years surplus breeding stock will be sold, off the farm and through the ring.

The cows and calves are grazed through the summer with the calves suckling until up to nine months of age.

While the hardy breed could be out wintered, the herd is housed from November to April to preserve the farm land.

Cattle from the herd, mainly steers but some heifers not kept as breeders, are finished at 28-29 months old. As the herd continues to grow, some Belted Galloways bred locally are bought in to finish to meet the demand for the boxed beef.

The cattle are slaughtered at Black Brow, near Wigton, where the carcases are matured for 21 days, and butchered at Kirkup’s at Longtown where they are vacuum-packed. The aim is to reduce food miles and travelling time for the stock, which are always transported in pairs to help reduce stress.

The vacuum-packed chilled beef is sold online for customer collection in three different sized boxes – Taste of Galloway at 2.5kg, the Castle at 5kg and Wragmire at 10kg.

Typically, the Wragmire box would contain two sirloin or topside joints, one brisket joint, six sirloin, rump or ribeye steaks, steak mince, braising steak and stewing steak.

Connie has also been working on special boxes – a barbecue box of steaks and burgers and a special Father's Day gift pack including an apron and a card.

“I’ve had people from different parts of the country wanting to buy the beef, which has been a bit of a logistical challenge,” said Connie. “We have also had enquiries from chefs for different cuts to the traditional cuts we are currently selling. I would like to get our beef onto the menu of The Farmers' Club in London, of which I’m an under-30s member.

“Most recently, we have had interest from a butcher in Hong Kong who supplies British ex-pats with heritage meats.

“Locally, we would like to develop relationships with local butchers and try to get sales into the pubs and restaurants."

In formulating the business plan, Connie has endeavoured to use local businesses for packaging and other promotional material.

“I never expected the beef sales to go so well. I just wanted to put my own spin on the family business,” said Connie, who acknowledges that sales have been boosted by the pandemic as people understand the importance of supporting local businesses and trying new ways shopping.

The Wainwrights have farmed at Castle Farm since 1982 when Robert and Norma (Neil’s parents) bought the farm, moving from the Macclesfield area of Cheshire. Henry and Connie are the fifth generation of the family to be involved with farming.

“It has shown that you can set up a business remotely and we have grown and brought customers along on our journey by using social media,” added Connie.