Organic beef farmers, Shon and Simon Sprackling launched Rother Valley Organics in early 2004. The idea was to sell organic meat direct to customers' doors - handling the entire process literally from pasture to plate and in doing so help preserve some of the most environmentally sensitive areas of the South Downs and provide a lifeline for other local farmers.
The brothers sell their own organic Aberdeen Angus beef, but work with other local farmers to offer a wider choice of organic meats such as pork, lamb, chicken & turkey and other organic breeds. Rother Valley Organics has just commenced farming lamb on herbage rich grass with 220 Beulah ewes at Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Petersfield, one of only a handful of organic registered public parks. This means we will be able to provide lamb roasts from our own flock. The brothers are also ‘trotting’ out plans for their own pigs so watch this space for an update. Part of the company's proposition is that all the meat is fully traceable and the Spracklings have even built their own on-site butchery where they employ master butchers to ensure the meat is cut and presented to the highest standards. The venture is already attracting custom from people who not only care where their food has come from and how it has been treated, but also want to help the local environment and economy.
Part of the remit of Rother Valley Organics is to help preserve the environment. Much of the Sprackling's grazing land is either a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) or an ESA (Environmentally Sensitive Area). It has joined forces with the 'Three Harbours Grazing Marsh Products' - a new food initiative between the Chichester Harbour Conservancy and the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) - aimed at securing the survival of the coastal grazing marshes. Aberdeen Angus sucklers are now grazed on Thorney Island on the South Coast which will help preserve the environment and maintain it as a habitat for rare plants, wildlife and birds, such as the skylark and lapwing.
