From farm to butcher
PITTSWORTH butcher Rob Ashton has successfully completed the beef supply chain.
Mr Ashton, his wife Rhonda and two sons Dean and Craig operate Ashton’s Butchery, which consists of a 283ha farm near Pittsworth, and two butcher shops, one in Pittsworth and one in Dalby.
In March the Ashton’s purchased the Millmerran Abattoirs, which completes the last link in the chain.
The Millmerran abattoir has been running since 1975.
The Ashton’s Butchery owner purchased the processing facility from Scott Glasser, as he thought it would be a good investment for his business.
“We were already processing our stock at Millmerran,” Mr Ashton said.
“It was a chance to keep control of every step that we do, and also improve the abattoir by putting a shade shed over the holding area as well as putting in new yards and laneway for safety and low stress.
“We want to keep employment there and keep everything running smoothly.”
The Millmerran abattoir processes cattle, pigs, lamb and goats.
“We do 50 head of cattle a week, about 40 pigs, and we’re doing over 100 lambs a week,” Mr Ashton said.
“We’re struggling to find the staff. We could do more if we had people to do the work.
“We have four full-time slaughtermen at the moment, two more would be a big help.”
The two main slaughtermen at the Millmerran abattoir have food safety certificates, which means they can do their own inspections. Mr Ashton started butchering in 1971 in Pittsworth. In 1977 he bought out his employer, the late Tom Aldridge.
In 2006, Ashton’s opened another butcher shop in Dalby.
“We process the meat for both shops in Millmerran, then we break up all the meat, make the sausages, smoke and cook the ham, bacon and smallgoods in our Pittsworth shop, which has plenty of room, before being distributed on to the Dalby store,” Mr Ashton said.
All the meat at Ashton’s Butchery is sourced from local producers.
“We have a farm in Pittsworth we use to fatten livestock,” Mr Ashton said.
“We buy a lot of lambs from local producers or from Warwick saleyards, and we buy cattle locally and fatten them as well.
“Pigs we source locally from Darren Reed in Millmerran. He does a great job.
“Chickens are delivered two to three times a week from Nerang Park to ensure freshness.”
Mr Ashton’s two sons, Dean and Craig, work with him in the family business.
“Dean looks after the Dalby shop and Craig looks after the farm as well as working at the shop in Pittsworth,” Mr Ashton said.
“I have a main man, Darryl O’Sullivan, who looks after the shop in Pittsworth and has been with me for 40 years.”
This holiday season, Ashton’s Butchery is raising money for cancer services.
“For every ham we sell we’re putting a dollar in to share between breast cancer organisation Blush, which supports local breast cancer nurses, and prostate cancer organisation A Bloke’s Thing,” Mr Ashton said.
“We sell a lot of hams at Christmas. People come from Brisbane and Toowoomba just to purchase our hams.”