'Money's too tight... it's demoralising for everyone involved'

If the trend of small abattoir closures continues, they could be nearly extinct by the end of the decade, a Food Standards Agency report has warned.

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A survey carried out by the Sustainable Food Trust found that a third of UK farmers have seen their local slaughterhouse close in the past five years, with 29% of respondents admitting they would have to sell their business if they could no longer kill animals locally.

Mr Smith, whose operation is based in Henfield, West Sussex, added: “We have smallholder farmers coming to us from right across the South East because there’s no other option. I’m now delivering five miles this side of Salisbury and up the M25 to Reading. Two small abattoirs in Kent and Farnborough closed a few months ago so those farmers are coming to us now too.”

Johnny Rollings, 35, who runs Havenhurst Farm in Billingshurst, West Sussex, used to go to the abattoir in Farnborough before it shut at the start of the year. He said:

“Luckily, we're not too far away from Down Land. But I don’t know what I'd do if this place closed.

“We'd have to think about going to a larger commercial abattoir, although I’m not sure that they'd cater for the small amount of animals we produce. Farms might just stop slaughtering their animals altogether. It stops being viable at a certain point and you can’t have pigs travelling in a trailer for hours up the motorway.”