Patron: His Majesty King Charles III
Stephen Allardyce, together with two sons and a stockman, run a 250-head suckler herd on the Douneside Estate in Aberdeenshire, and all stock bulls are bought based on breeding figures. Ten bulls are used, and the latest purchase is a South Devon.
A keen interest in converting good quality beef cattle into top notch carcasses triggered John East’s interest in the South Devon breed in the late 1970s. “My father was interested in fatstock showing at the Christmas shows, and we kept a few continentals to sell each year,” he says. “At the time, the native classes were dwindling, so we started buying in a South Devon animal to exhibit and sell each year, to support the local markets.”
Breeding cattle on Dartmoor is no easy feat, with fearsome weather and sparse grazing demanding particularly hardy stock. But Mat Cole and his brother Neil have got the system down to a fine art, choosing their cattle to suit the environment, and building an excellent market for both stores and finished beef in the area.
