Macphie farm wins top M&S award

The UK’s leading, added-value, independent food ingredients company Macphie of Glenbervie has won the Aberdeen Angus Supplier of the Year, a prestigious annual award presented by retail giants Marks & Spencer – and Scotbeef – meat wholesalers to M&S.

Glenbervie Home Farm was among 20 of the top farms in the Select Farm category which supplies meat to Scotbeef. The tough selection process over 12 months looked at all aspects of a modern farm such as the quality of the cattle, welfare of the animals, the working practices on the farm and the environment.

Lorna Foubister, Scotbeef livestock liaison, said: “We looked at all producers who finished over 40 cattle in a
12-month period and took the top 20 producers who fell into this category. There were three parts to the competition; the first part was the grades of cattle that went to Scotbeef over the past year that met the Select Farm criteria of M&S. The criteria included animals which were the right weight, age, shape and fat cover.

“Part two was to choose steaks from each producer and run anaglyptic tests looking at tenderness, succulence and flavour. This was followed by a farm visit from judges Peter and Pat Alexander of Mains of Mause farm in Perthshire, who marked the farm on stockmanship, the welfare and appearance of the animals, working practices on the farm, grassland management and the environmental impact of the farm.

“The results for the twenty farms were then compared giving us the overall winner – Glenbervie Home Farm”.

Macphie farm manager John Lohoar commented: “I’m absolutely delighted to receive this prestigious award. It’s nice to receive an award for basically doing your job. We started 23 years ago with the intention of producing high quality, tasty, succulent beef and it’s great that the team at Glenberbie Home Farm have been recognised for doing just that over the past two decades.
“The bigger picture of the welfare of the livestock on the farm, as well the positive environmental impact our work at Glenbervie and the surrounding area has is also very important, and that gives me an enormous sense of satisfaction to know that we’re doing things the right way”.