Delivery, collection and transport
Version 2026-07-v1 · Last updated 04 August 2026
Whether you collect your animals yourself or ask us to bring them to you, the arrangement, the transport used and its cost are settled with you in advance. This page sets out both routes, the standards we hold transport to, the way delivery works where slaughter and cutting have been added, and the point at which responsibility for the animals passes to you.
Collecting in person
Each listing indicates whether the animals may be collected and from where. If you choose to collect, we ask that you bring transport suited to the animals, and that you take the opportunity to satisfy yourself as to their condition before loading them. Responsibility for the animals passes to you at the point of collection.
Delivery by livestock transport
Where delivery is offered, we arrange suitable livestock transport on your behalf. The cost depends principally on the distance to be travelled and the number of animals, and it is quoted and confirmed with you before it is charged. We give you an expected delivery window and keep you informed as your order makes its way to you, so that you are never left wondering where matters stand.
Who carries your animals, and to what standard
The transporters we engage are drawn from a directory we vet before any work is routed to them, and each carries the permit and insurance appropriate to the load. Livestock and meat are never carried by the same means: live animals travel by livestock transport suited to the species and journey, and meat travels only in cold-chain transport. The transporter who handles each leg of your order is recorded, so that the journey of your animals can be accounted for from beginning to end.
Keeping meat cold on its way to you
Where your order includes slaughter and cutting, the resulting meat is moved in refrigerated transport and held within the correct temperature range for the whole of its journey, so that the cold chain is never broken between the cutting facility and your door. If for any reason we cannot maintain those conditions, we will not deliver meat that may have been compromised; we will contact you and put matters right.
Where your order includes slaughter and cutting
Where you have chosen to add own-use slaughter and cutting, we coordinate each stage in its proper sequence: collection of the animal, slaughter at a registered abattoir, cutting at a licensed facility, and cold-chain delivery of the resulting meat to you. Each stage is recorded, and the meat is held within the correct temperature range throughout its journey, so that what began as a live purchase reaches you safely and lawfully as meat that is yours to use.
What we ask of you on the day
So that a delivery goes smoothly, we ask that someone be present to receive the order at the agreed place and time, that there is safe access for the transport and, for live animals, a suitable place to offload them. If nobody can receive the order or the animals cannot be offloaded safely, the transport may have to return, and a further trip may carry an additional cost, which we would always discuss with you first.
When responsibility passes to you
On a collection, responsibility passes to you when you load the animals. On a delivery, it passes when the order is handed over to you at its destination. The precise moment at which risk in the animals moves from us to you, and what happens in the unlikely event that an animal is lost or injured along the way, is set out in full on the mortality and risk transfer page, which this page should be read alongside.