The Tiny Trailer Abattoir: Humane, Local Slaughter for Orkney & Highlands

Since Orkney lost its abattoir in 2018, and with local abattoirs continuing to close across the Highlands, crofters and farmers are being forced to transport sheep hundreds of miles for slaughter. These long journeys are expensive, weather-dependent, stressful for animals, and unsustainable for remote farming communities.

The Tiny Trailer Abattoir (TTA) is a practical, humane solution. Owned by the Orkney Boreray Farming Co-operative, this mobile, on-farm abattoir will be available for hire to any farmers and crofters who wish to use it. It will allow sheep to be slaughtered on their home farm or croft, handled by the farmers who know them best.

The TTA will dramatically improve animal welfare while strengthening the economic sustainability of crofts and farms in some of Scotland’s most remote areas.

The total cost of this first-of-its-kind infrastructure is £100,000. We have already raised half and now need your help to reach the final £50,000.

Please support this project with a donation, no matter how small, or by sharing this fundraiser.

If you would like to find out more about the project, visit https://orkneyboreray.com/ 

Project news on BBC website:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdx0zzn65e3o

For Facebook users a video about the project on BBC Radio Orkney page:  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=1952576185500869

Optionally, you can save your purchase to your account by Signing in.
If you don’t have an account, you can Sign up to create one.

Today is the last official day of the fundraiser - and what a day is has been.  Recent donations have pushed us up to 81% of the total required.  To everyone who has been able show their support with a donation - thank you so much.  You have made a vital contribution to a project that will not only bring a significant increase in sheep welfare, but will make a real difference to sheep farmers and crofters in some of the most remote parts of the north of Scotland.

By making it possible for organic sheep to be slaughtered this will increase the sustainability and profitability of organic crofts and farms.  We're even hearing that this will contribute towards more crofts becoming certified organic.

What hasn't yet been added to the total raised is a grant that I've very recently heard we will be getting.  I completed a submission to The Islands Centre for Net Zero, icnz.org, which focused on sustainability and how the TTA can deliver meaningful emission reductions in local food production.  We achieved a high score and are thrilled to hear that ICNZ, which is part of the UK and Scottish Government funded Islands Growth Deal, will be awarding us a grant.

I can't tell you how excited we are about this second grant, not least because it recognises that the TTA is not just about animal welfare and farm or croft profitability, it's about increasing the sustainability of food production and we're proud to be contributing to that.

The Orkney Boreray TTA is in the final stages of construction and will be coming to Orkney this spring.  This project is just a start.  We've had queries about TTA's for other parts of the country and for other species, one being an even smaller unit for slaughtering poultry in Northern Ireland.  The most recent enquiry has been for a TTA designed to slaughter pigs.  Andy Gray's work designing this first TTA, and experiencing how it operates in different situations in Orkney's isles and in the Highlands will provide information that can inform future TTA's of different sizes and requirements.

If anyone would like to contact Andy to discuss your own customised TTA, please contact me through orkney.boreray.com

And again, for all your support, all your sharing of information about the Orkney Boreray TTA and this fundraiser, and for all your donations - thank you so much.

As you can see from the total raised so far we have had a wonderful boost to our journey to reach the total goal with a grant from the Scottish Government through the Small Producers Pilot Fund.  We are very grateful for this grant towards the capital cost of the Tiny Trailer Abattoir (TTA) and I'd like to thank the individuals who have made it possible.  We are almost there!

We couldn't have got this close to the total without the support and donations from so many of you.  Your messages of support have been so uplifting.  Thank you.  Please however spread the word as much as you can to help get us to our final goal.

Construction of the trailers is well underway.  I hope to have some photographs to post soon.  There is going to be a minor delay in them coming to Orkney.  Unsurprisingly given the number of weather related ferry cancellations since the beginning of the year the construction of the meat larder in North Ronaldsay is not as far on as hoped.  Any construction work on isles in Orkney is a challenge getting materials and staff there.  It does however mean that we can ease pressure on the deadline for the trailers being finished which was governed primarily by an ideal date for North Ronaldsay's mutton sheep being slaughtered after fattening up over winter on the seaweed on the shore.  With any prototype there is inevitably tweaking to be done and moving completion to April can only be beneficial.

I do however have photographs of the work that Andrew Sinclair Ltd have done on the site at Burnside in West Mainland where the Orkney Boreray sheep will be slaughtered in the TTA.  As you can see they have done a brilliant job in challenging weather and there is now plenty of room to manoeuvrer the trailers around to dock them together for operation adjacent to the shed on the right.

For those who have not already heard, we are working with Scottish Crofting Federation to provide comprehensive information to enable crofters and farmers in Orkney and the Highlands to enable them to get their site licensed to use the TTA and so they can be confident in operating it within the regulatory requirements.

Finally, for now, we will be having the TTA certified for Organic Slaughter so that organic crofters can market their meat as Certified Organic.  We anticipate this will enable other crofters to choose to become Certified Organic knowing local organic slaughter is available.