Producing what the customer wants at John Scott Meat

From humble beginnings in 1968, selling eggs and cattle from the family farm to their local butcher, John Scott Meat has evolved into a successful family business with a reputation for supplying the highest quality Scottish Beef and Lamb directly to independent butchers, Smithfield market and high-end restaurants across the entire length of the UK.

From their processing facilities in Paisley, John Scott Meat currently process 15,000 cattle and 16,000 lambs a year and, with a team of in-house qualified artisan butchers, are uniquely positioned to be able to both select and prepare individual carcasses to meet the exacting requirements of each client. This be-spoke butchery service differentiates John Scott Meat from similar processers selling into the commercial supermarket trade and has resulted in a loyal following in the butchery and service trades where quality and consistency are valued above all.

Producing what the customer wants is not only important for John Scott Meat but is something that is encouraged at farm level. Moving away from finishing livestock at any age or bodyweight, which often results in an inconsistent end-product with a poor eating experience, they instead focus on promoting steady growth on controlled rations built to produce a high value carcass at the size and quality demanded by the client and subsequently the consumer. This is particularly important in the UK where, due to such a wide variety of breeds and feeding systems, results in carcasses cover a huge range of weights, conformation and eating quality, which are hard to sell and quickly reduce the average achievable selling price. The aim of John Scott Meat is to source cattle and lamb within well-defined carcass criterion to guarantee a consistent eating experience, attract the highest possible price and help grow their client business by boosting consumer confidence.

Another benefit of matching the quality of each carcass with the requirements of each individual client is that, over many years, John Scott Meat have been able to establish which feeding practices, breed and age produce the best results for each end market. This invaluable source of information is often used by producers to adjust their feeding and management strategies, both short and long term, to produce a carcass that is consistently at the ideal weight, fat score and composition and therefore achieves the highest possible price.

One such example is of clients at Smithfield Meat Market who value a smaller carcass with high level of marbling and creamy fat cover. To meet these specific requirement, Simmental cross heifers are reared at grass before being finished at 22 months old on a 50:50 TMR mix of grass silage and a bespoke Norvite Finisher Blend, containing high levels of alkaline Alpha Barley and Alpha Maize for colouration and marbling.

“The heifers have been flying on the new finishing ration, with excellent fat cover, grading out extremely well at R3/4L and with nice creamy fat cover”, comments Jamie Scott. “Carcass weight and confirmation were also where we needed them to be and the heifers were like peas-in-a-pod, which is exactly what we are looking for in our business. We even finished lambs ad-lib on the same Finisher Blend, with no signs of gravel and excellent dung consistency with the lambs easily achieving our target of U/R3L at 23kg deadweight”

Looking forward, John Scott Meat will continue to develop close working relationships with like-minded producers to help further establish the business as the first choice for premium beef and lamb in the UK and further afield.

For more information and to discuss opportunities to work more closely with John Scott Meat please get in touch.