“Any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef”

At the risk of inviting a tirade of abuse for encouraging people to impulsively take a chainsaw to a cow and receiving advice on nutrition, health and my colon from those out there who don’t chose to eat meat (Katie, my girlfriend included) I thought I would kick-off my first blog for nearly three months with a bold quote from Samuel Johnson. This cannot be taken literally (although in theory we should all be prepared to do this in order to eat any part of an animal, to be fair) however, it does suggest that the eating of beef has for a few centuries at least, been an institution in Britain.

British Beef, as we all know, is fantastic. Wrong! (If I try to go into too much detail here I’ll bore you, bore myself, and probably start ranting on about decay in society, falling standards of education and mass cloning...all of which are of course intrinsically linked). So I won’t. I’ll just mention that the legacy of measures taken by the government at the time of the BSE outbreak in the nineties is still with us and its effects have had a detrimental hand in the rearing of cattle as far as the eating quality of the final product is concerned. In addition, supermarket practice really hasn’t helped at all. They seem to be more interested in creating “shelf-life” than selling produce at its prime. This means that whilst supermarket meat may look how we “think” it should, it rarely delivers on flavour and texture despite being called the “finest” and being packaged in a black plastic tray with a picture of a farmer and a cow on the front.

Adhering to the best possible practices to produce high quality beef is hard for all farmers because quality ultimately translates into more cost. If you want to give animals the best possible diet and give them more than enough space and keep them alive for longer (age + grass = flavour) then you are basically going to have to shell out more money – plus, margins are being further squeezed at every level given that the prices of stock, feed, bedding and fuel etc continue to rise. So, what can you do as a farmer if you are not prepared to compromise on quality to reduce your costs? One way is to cut out the middle man...


I can now lead seamlessly into what the hell I have been up to for the past couple of months...


I have been equipping some space on the farm for the preparation, cold storage and sale of our beautiful beef. The result being that from about the 1st March we will be in a position to sell our produce locally by collection or delivery (free within 10 miles!) to anybody out there who wants some, be it a single steak or a portion of mince up to a massive chunk of roasting joint or a selection box.

                            The prep room under construction

Remember, this is not ordinary beef. The process of dry-aging for 4 weeks added to the grass-rich diet enjoyed by these animals translates into something quite unique which you will struggle to find elsewhere, especially as our animals are South Devon. Orders are being taken from hereon, so if you want your pick of the choice cuts get in touch on 01580 880 414.

                                                        The chiller

We are also in the process of developing our soon to be published website scalandsfarm.co.uk where you can learn everything you’ll need to know should you be interested in our produce.

I’ll keep you up to date with how things are going whenever I get the chance and if any of you have any questions or clever ideas, interesting contacts, or orders please do not hesitate to get in touch by phone or at jeremy@scalandsfarm.co.uk.