David Turner - BM caterer

David supplies us with superb beef and lamb. He started Curtis Farm, in Horsham, with his wife Pauline at the end of 1998. They both come from farming families and, since setting up the farm, they’ve grown it to 700 acres. They’ve also brought up a family of five children. Their eldest son now works for them full time, with the younger ones helping whenever possible.

Better care, better produce

David’s very proud of the animals he raises with his family.

“We have number of breeds here”, he explains. “These include Herdwick and Southdown sheep, and Angus and Hereford cattle. We do everything we can to make sure the cows and sheep are well cared for”.

Farmer David's calf Our calves stay with their mothers for seven months before we bring them indoors for the winter, where they have straw bedding and feed on silage and hay. Once it starts to get warmer, in the spring, we put them out to graze on the grass again, and they leave the farm in the autumn of their second year.” Because David’s animals are reared naturally with their mothers, and given more time to mature, their meat has a superior flavour. David and Pauline also grow their own forage for the animals to eat, which gives them complete traceability on the feed and lowers the cost of production.

Hands-on approach

David keeps the whole process as natural as possible. If the weather’s right, he brings the cattle out to the fields, rather than having them all together in a shed – this reduces disease and it’s better for the mothers and their young. In Sussex, they can have over 80cm of rain a year. This wet weather means they grow plenty of grass, which is perfect for a cattle farm. And whatever the weather, David regularly goes round the whole the farm, checking on the animals.

Meet our suppliers