Few farmers can boast that their animals are bred, reared and butchered within a few miles of home - but that is what Tony Woods hopes will keep him farming, writes Justin Hawkins.

On the lush field of Abbotts Reading farm in the Rusland Valley, Tony has been steadily building up his herd of Highland and Beef Shorthorn cattle.

It was back in 1995, in the dark days of BSE, that Tony first decided that things had to change.

By 1997 he had begun changing his herd of commercial sucklers into the 180-strong naturally-reared herd cattle which now populate the farm.

Tony explained that the herd, spread across land at Haverthwaite and another unit on the Holker estate, are bred and reared as naturally as possible.

The bare minimum of fertilizer is put on the fields, only natural diet supplements are used and the herd is not dosed with unnecessary antibiotics.

Even artificial insemination has been eschewed in favour of a more traditional way - as Tony explained: "We just put the bull in with the cattle and we take what we are given - it is a full, natural system.

It's as untampered with as it can be."

The breeds were chosen for the quality of the meat.

And, although they are slower to mature and go at between 24 and 30 months, where typical commercial beef cattle might go at 14 months, the meat, marbled with fat which helps cooking and improves flavour, eats particularly well.

Tony said the Highland breed is quite slow growing but crossing them with the Beef Shorthorn as he does means they grow quite a little faster and put flesh on more easily while retaining eating quality.

Animal welfare is a top concern at Abbotts Reading and the fact that the cattle and the Herdwicks with which Tony restocked after losing his rare-breed sheep to foot-and-mouth culling, have a good quality of life.

They are, as Tony says proudly: "Free to express their normal behaviour."

"I have one customer who will only eat our meat because it's what she calls 'happy cow'," said Tony.

Tony works closely with Steven Airey at the nearby Aireys Abattoir and sells his wares to the White Hart at Bouth and the Kings Arms at Cartmel as well as to private customers.

The herd is calved all year round and, when ready, they are taken to Aireys, where they are slaughtered and butchered.

"They really care about what they are doing, they' re a very professional team up there," said Tony.

Too often, he said, animals spend long uncomfortable hours in transit to an abattoir.

Raising the cattle the way he does and taking them to a small, local abattoir, Tony is trying to turn back the clock and get away from more intensive production which has alienated the public from farming and fuelled a mistrust of meat.

"If people give up eating meat because they don't like the taste that is one thing," he said, "but if people give it up because they don't like the way it is reared, we should be able to do better than that.

"I want to farm how people want us to farm and that is what we are trying to do here."

Tony has decided to tread his own path rather than join this or that farm assurance scheme or go officially organic.

"I just want to do my own thing," he said "If people want to check it out they can come here and see it for themselves."

The special, naturally-reared quality of Abbotts Reading is somewhat dependent on the business remaining fairly small and, at the moment, Tony has no plans to produce more that 70 beef cattle a year.

"If I can make a living with the produce from this farm, that is my ambition and that will do.

There is no real big picture here.

I just want to be able to farm to get a decent income."

l Anyone interested in finding out more about Abbotts Reading farm can call Tony Woods on 015395-31203 or 31835.