Dalton Butchery

About Winterton Abattoir

Winterton Abattoir opened in April 2004, to both add value to the original managing members pigs and to have more control over the sale of their livestock. Regular audits by both Abattoir hygiene and animal welfare experts, as well as strict oversight by state officials (VPH), ensure an exceptional product with extended shelf life. The use of the latest technology and software solutions ensures full traceability from farm to fork!

We are ZA Accredited | ZA-380 – ensuring all our consumers can have complete faith in the meat they eat, and can be guaranteed the quality that they expect.

About Dalton Abattoir

In 2011, Pidelta Farming put their Abattoir and Butchery on the market in the Dalton area.

They were busy with their business buyout by Pioneer Seeds and wanted to off load their non-core assets. After much deliberation, the members of Ambleside Meats CC decided to expand the business and agreed to buy the two premiss’s in Dalton. The idea was to slaughter beef. Also, to do all of the cull pork animals in Dalton as the slaughter line in Winterton was too low, and not designed for such heavy animals.

Thus, Dalton Abattoir and Butchery were re-opened twelve years ago by Ambleside Meats CC.

By 2017, we decided to close the agricultural section down. The feedlot had been losing financially for some time and that year heightened the strain. Instead the focus was moved onto our core business which was pork slaughter, further processing and marketing.

However, another challenge came in 2021, which proved to be a particularly difficult year. Not only was there an economic fallout from the Covid Pandemic, but on top of this, the KZN looting in July of that year. Fortunately, we managed to save all our assets and properties except for Dalton Butchery which was severely damaged, and all our stock was lost. We were forced to close this section of the business down on the 09.07.2021- not only due to the damage incurred to the property, but also due to the general damage to the Dalton Village. By some miracle the Dalton Abattoir managed to get away unscathed, and was re-opened a few weeks later. The Butchery remained closed. In 2022, we decided to repair and refurbish this facility and the deboning line and distribution came back online in June 2023.

This facility currently accounts for 50% of our whole deboning capacity, and its primary function is to supply raw material to our manufacturing factory in Winterton (Loving Hams). We also distribute and supply primal cuts into the wholesale market. Our next short term goal is to re-open our factory retail outlet once more, so that we can contribute to the local economy and provide the local inhabitants of the area with quality affordable protein.