FARMERS have joined forces to launch a meat marketing company to help secure their future.

The Dales Quality Meat Company, in Wensleydale, aims to make beef and lamb from the area the choice of cooks and food-lovers across the country.

Founded, owned and supplied by local farmers, it will be officially launched at next weekend's Dales Festival of Food and Drink, in Leyburn.

The company has been established with the help of funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' rural enterprise scheme.

It is being regarded as a key part in a strategic alliance which it is hoped will provide livestock farmers in the Dales with a secure foundation on which they will be able to build more sustainable businesses.

Partners in the alliance are Dales Quality Meat, Hawes Farmers' Auction Mart and the McIntyre Meats abattoir at Bainbridge.

Liz Hird, general manager with Dales Quality Meats, said: "This is a new company with a new approach. It is unique in its foundation and structure and it is these attributes that give it its strength.

"This is not a short-term marketing idea. This is a real solution, born out of real needs."

Farmers will have to register with the company to supply it with livestock and will have to meet specific quality standards.