About Us
We
came to Sunnyside in the summer of 2004. We, by the way, are Doreen, David
and Dominic Smith.
We came here trying to find a different way of life, with a goal of being self sufficient. We came with absolutely no farming experience. You have to learn very quickly and we soon realised that for a small farm to survive things had to be done differently to the bigger farms with their economies of scale. So we decided that we would produce and butcher all our own stock on site. The concept is to sell enough to pay for itself and give us a small income. Farming is a way of life where things move at their own pace and you get by, rather than a high profit business, and this is what we want to do.
We try to farm to our ideals of welfare and traditional ways. This goes
for everything: from the hand cured bacon using nothing but sea salt and
sugars; to the pigs living free range outdoors and taking over twice as long
to mature as their unfortunate commercial brothers. Sunnyside, on the
north side of the Nith valley is where we rear quality traditional breeds:
they include Aberdeen Angus cows; Shetland and Castlemilk Moorit sheep; Gloucester
old Spot and Berkshire Pigs. We passionately believe that the welfare of
our animals is the most important thing in producing quality meats. 
You only
get out of an animal what you put in, and a contented animal produces a better
meat. All the animals are allowed to mature at their own rate without the
use of concentrates or growth stimulators. Antibiotics and other medicines
are only used when they are absolutely required.
