We had another good turn out for our March open meeting. The speaker was Thankerton beef farmer and butchery shop owner, Michael Shannon. Born in Ulster, Michael comes from a long line of medical doctors, but he decided early on that farming was for him. Starting as a seed salesman, which let him travel widely, occasionally internationally, he absorbed all the novel ideas he came across and implemented the best of them when he moved to Scotland and bought Thankerton Camp Farm (so named because it sits on the site of Thankerton Moor POW Camp No 62 which was built to house Italian POWs in 1941). He quickly realised that rearing finest quality Aberdeen Angus cattle only to sell them at market was missing a trick so he formed Damn Delicious to butcher and sell his own meat in his own farm shop on Thankerton Moor. Over the past 20 years he has become a respected local businessman and a keen supporter of the local community (particularly the school roll!!).

As well as telling us about his career and the farm, Michael brought along some of his products to show us.