Graeme Parker

Graeme Parker Hoof Trimming, Dumfries and Galloway

Aiming to expand his hoof trimming service, Graeme Parker is looking to branch out into new areas.

Following an on-farm upbringing, unfortunate circumstances took Graeme away from farming but,
some 14 years later he set his stall in the livestock world freeze branding cattle. The decision enabled him to build his customer base to branding about 11,000 cattle a year.

Wanting to move on into foot trimming yet with second-hand crushes proving too costly, he set about building his own.

As workload grew, he began to renovate and eventually replace his crush for a more modern unit to cope with the larger number of stock being worked on.

Along with carrying out trimming, Graeme provides training and assistance to farmers, with an aim to improve their overall heard health.

Customer relations

His experience in dealing with customers comes from a previous career managing pubs and hotels. He is constantly looking to improve the quality of his service, through training and looking at practices used in other industries.

He also believes through helping customers improve their herd health, shows his genuine interest in their business, which he hopes leads to decent customer retention and good feedback.

Through choosing to do small jobs many trimmers would not entertain, he has increased his customer base massively, many of which have led to some of his largest customers.

Graeme is also trying to utilise the powers of social media to show examples of his work and explain the importance of hoof health.

To expand his business, he is looking to further broaden his portfolio to include cattle pregnancy diagnostics (PD) testing, purchase another high-spec crush and take on staff in the form of an apprentice.

On winning the award, Graeme said: Winning the award has been unbelievably satisfying. The amount of support and congratulations from customers and famers in general is been very humbling and has already been good for business.  The foundation of contracting businesses like mine is repeat custom and I’ve always felt that just doing the best job possible isn’t enough – going the extra mile and exceeding expectations is absolutely key for me. I can’t wait to see what’s around the corner for me and to see where my business can go from here.

The judges said about Graeme: Graeme won the judges over with his clear drive and unwavering passion for his contracting business. All the judges were particularly impressed with his use of skills from past experiences and how he has developed these into a bespoke contracting service.