The scale of producers who directly consign livestock to abattoirs across Scotland is hard to quantify, but its importance is clear. These businesses frequently supply high value meat and meat products to local and niche markets. This activity supports wealth creation, diversity, and employment in rural areas and in market-town high streets. 

This survey, which should only take a couple of minutes to complete, aims to define the scale of the abattoir and meat processing services issue affecting producers in Scotland, the key sectors affected and to identify if there are geographic or sectoral hotspots.

This survey has been developed by the Steering Group of the Small Producers Pilot Fund (supported by Scottish Government). A survey of abattoirs and processing facilities is running in parallel to similarly assess the issues and capacities of the sector. 
These surveys will build on the work already completed in 2022 by the Sustainable Food Trust/Abattoir Sector Group.
 
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Your results will be treated confidentially. Data gathered will only be utilised on a pooled basis to build a strategic understanding of abattoir access in Scotland. 

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* 1. Please enter your post code.

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* 2. Which of the following best describes your business activity in terms of meat production?

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* 3. If you included "organic" in your response to Q2, please provide detail on the number of years certified and if you sell as conventional due to lack of processing facilities. 

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* 4. How long have you been utilising an abattoir service in Scotland?

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* 5. Please enter the number of livestock you process for each season.

  Cattle Pigs Sheep Deer Poultry Goats
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

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* 6. If unable to access a processing facility, please enter the number of livestock you would like to or used to process for each season.

  Cattle Pigs Sheep Deer Poultry Goats
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

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* 7. Are you able to process all you would like?

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* 8. Where do you currently have your animals slaughtered? Please enter as many as you use.

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* 9. Where do you currently have your carcasses butchered and which other additional services do you use e.g. cutting and packing?

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* 10. How are your live animals transported to abattoir?

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* 11. How are carcasses or butchered products transported?

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* 12. Outline the one thing for your business that would help improve the abattoir service that you currently receive.

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* 13. Outline the one thing for your business that would help improve the butchery service that you currently receive. 

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* 14. A potential route to achieve abattoir access may be for producers to work together to batch loads and paperwork to provide viable loads for larger facilities. This would likely mean a loss of personal control of some aspects of the process. Are you open to considering a collaborative co-ordinated route?

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* 15. Do you require skills training in any of the following areas?

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* 16. If you're willing to be contacted further please add your email address.

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