Valley Meats is a father-and-son butchery on Pohangina Road in Ashhurst, serving farmers and families around Palmerston North with home kill processing and traditional small goods. Phil began his butchery trade in 1978, learning the traditional style of butchery, and after a 20-year break dairy farming started Valley Meats in 2005. Today his son Frazer — trained and mentored by Phil and now a qualified butcher — has taken over the business.
The core of the work is home kill and processing for beef, sheep, pigs and deer, with a stated commitment to supporting clients to achieve their home kill needs. Alongside processing, the team are specialists in small goods, producing flavoured sausages, meat patties, venison salami, bacon and ham.
Customer feedback is strong: a long-time farming customer of more than two decades describes the beef as the best her family has ever had — tender and succulent — while others single out the venison patties and sausages, and praise the fast, friendly, hassle-free and affordable service. Order forms for beef, sheep, venison and pork are available on the website, and Frazer can be reached directly on 027 213 0140. The shop is open weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm.
Up on Pohangina Road in Ashhurst, a short drive from Palmerston North, Valley Meats is doing the kind of butchery work that once underpinned every rural town in New Zealand: turning animals that local farmers have raised into meat for the family freezer, and making small goods the old-fashioned way alongside.
This is a family business in the truest sense. Phillip — Phil — started Valley Meats in 2005, but his connection to the trade goes back much further. He began his butchery trade in 1978, learning the traditional style of butchery, before taking a 20-year break to dairy farm. When he returned to the craft and opened Valley Meats, he brought both halves of that experience with him.
Today the business is in the hands of the second generation. Frazer, Phil's son, has taken over Valley Meats after being trained and mentored by his father in that same traditional butchery style. He is now a qualified butcher in his own right, carrying skills that were taught to him by hand rather than from a textbook.
Father and son share what the business describes as a true commitment: delivering your animal back to you as the best quality meat for you and your family. That philosophy shapes everything from how home kill jobs are handled to how the small goods are made.
The core service at Valley Meats is home kill and processing for beef, sheep, pigs and deer. For farmers, this is the full journey — from animal to wrapped, freezer-ready meat — handled by people who have done it for decades. The team describes itself as committed to supporting clients to achieve their home kill needs, and the reviews back that up: one long-time customer notes her family has been getting home kill from their farm processed here for over 23 years.
To make things easier, the Valley Meats website carries dedicated order forms for beef, sheep, venison and pork, so the details can be sorted before your animal arrives. Reviewers describe the process as hassle-free and affordable, with one noting that the team goes above and beyond to turn a four-legged animal into five-star restaurant quality meat — and that it all supports local.
For farmers with beef, sheep, pigs or deer ready for processing, the process is straightforward: get in touch by phone or through the order form, and leave the rest to two generations of traditional butchery.
Valley Meats is also a specialist in small goods, and this is where the butchery earns a devoted following. The range includes flavoured sausages, meat patties, venison salami, bacon and ham — all produced in-house.
The sausages come up again and again in customer feedback. "Great sausages too," adds that long-time home kill customer. Another, who tried the venison patties and sausages, said the team knocked it out of the park. Venison, in salami and patty form, is a natural strength for a butchery that processes deer.
The quality of the core processing earns just as much praise: the same customer of more than two decades calls the beef the best her family has ever had — tender and succulent.
Valley Meats operates from 380 Pohangina Road, Ashhurst 4884, and is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, closed on Saturdays and Sundays. If you're a farmer with an animal ready for processing — or simply after proper small goods — the best first step is to call Frazer directly on 027 213 0140, or fill in one of the order forms on the website.
In an era of supermarket counters and anonymous supply chains, Valley Meats stands for something more personal: a qualified butcher who learned from his father, processing local animals for local families, and making the sausages, patties, salami, bacon and ham worth the trip up the valley.