Stonehaven Producer secures top Steak Title

Straight out of the pen and straight into the history books, the best steak at the Royal Highland Show came from a heifer that Stonehaven producer, Chris Taylor, did not reckon was any better or worse than the rest of the beasts he consigned that day.

But when it came out on the plate, the steak from his 23 month old, U3L Blonde d’ Aquitane cross stood head-and-shoulders above the rest of the field, with all the competition judges remarking that it was a clear winner.

“I was surprised to win it” remarked Mr Taylor, who farms with his father, Ben, at Annamuick, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire. “Goodness knows why it turned out so good. Maybe its something to do with the draff in the feed”, he speculated.

The Taylor family moved to Stonehaven from Warwickshire 20 years ago and now run a herd of Blonde cross cows, crossed with Blonde and Salers Bulls. All claves, except replacement females, are finished on the farm on a silage-based diet, supplemented with home grown barley, draff and pot ale syrup.

On the day of the preliminary judging, held last month at the McIntosh Donald’s Portlethen meat plant, the Taylor’s Blonde cross heifer was one of 12 finalists selected on appearance from a record entry of 151 cattle. She was the only Blonde in the competition, lined up against sirloin steaks from eight Limousin and three Charolais vying for the McIntosh Donald/Tesco best scotch steak award.

For the final, the 12 steaks were cooked on the Tesco stand by celebrity chef, Colin Capon, and judged on a taste and succulence by a tasting panel, which included NFU Scotland President, Jim McLaren, Tesco commercial director fresh foods, Colin Holmes and the Scottish Farmer editor, Alasdair Fletcher.

Mr Taylor received a cash prize of £1,000 by Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Richard Lockhead. Aberdeenshire also claimed second and third places with the runners up award going to brothers Bruce and Neil McConnach, Brotherton Mains, Johnshaven, with a steak from a 352kg Limousin cross steer and third place going to Alan Melvin, Meikle Tulloch, Banchory, with another from a 369kg Limousin cross steer. Congratulations all round!!

We can be certain that our British Blondes have a very great deal to offer the world through export of stock and genetics. However, in order to sell them we have to be crystal clear why, especially when we’re trying to do it in another language or ask someone else to. In doing this, we also need to distinguish British Blondes from French, Dutch and Danish cattle which are widely available. Points about this are:-

Easy calving was asked about a lot at Hanover , particularly with respect to cross breeding. We heard little about crossing a beef breed onto dairy cattle, but more about putting a Blonde bull onto Charolais and Simmental cows, specifically with a view to getting easy calvings on German farms.

Early and rapid growth is our obvious distinguishing point, from French Blondes (though they are the ones who claim that a Blonde bull can put on 100gms per hour!). This point was very interesting to our enquirers.

People asked about polled cattle, where of course we were unable to help much. I do know that the Danes have developed polled Blondes from poll Hereford and crosses; that they are criticized for occasionally producing a throwback with a white face whether or not associated with excess fat and brisket; and that Danish Blondes at large are criticized for having gone for such heavy and early muscling that they have lost the easy calving that is seen as such a main advantage of the breed all over the world.

Temperament. Must be reliable.

More meat in the right places. Here I can’t avoid bringing in the essential greater length of the Blonde, which gives you more sirloin and fillet and adds £60 per inch of extra length to your carcass and knocks the other breeds into a cocked hat. Has anybody compared British Blondes killing out percentage with French?? Ability to gain weight on a forage diet?

Meat which is reliably lean, juicy and tender. British Blonde cattle will reach killing weights so early that I don’t feel tenderness gene analysis can tell us much. On the other hand, Ben was told that if you want to take the cattle on to heavier weights then Blondes, even heifers, won’t lay down excess fat.

Report by Hilary Jones