Exmoor has three native breeds of livestock; Devon Closewool sheep, Exmoor Horn sheep and Devon cattle. Devon has two breeds of cattle, the Devon, sometimes affectionately known as the Red Ruby or Ruby Red, and South Devon. Devons are hardy animals that convert pasture into meat with fantastic eating quality; and they do this with an efficiency.
Exmoor has a living heritage that must be
unique in its diversity and extent in comparison with any National Park
or distinctive region in the whole of Great Britain: Exmoor ponies, Exmoor
Horn and Devon Closewool sheep, wild Red deer and Red Ruby Cattle - the
Devon breed which is amongst the most ancient of breeds in its origins
and development.
The Pilgrim Fathers took red cattle from Devon when they
travelled to North America and in 1627 a pilgrim named Edward Winslow
arranged an importation of a bull and three heifers. It is also likely
that similar cattle were exported to ireland before 1580. Today a considerable
number of pedigree and commercial herds of Devon Red Rubies are dotted
all over the great Exmoor area and the number is increasing.
Not Devon Red Cattle but it does show a traditional barn
Nearly three hundred years ago James Quartly took the leasehold
of Great Champson, a farm on the edge of the village of Molland on the
south-west corner of Exmoor and it was on that farm at the end of the
eighteenth century that his grandson, Francis Quartly, began to work
seriously on the improvement of the native breed of cattle, the Devon.
Today Devons still graze the hill pastures of Great Champson, farmed
by twin brothers, Henry and William Dart, both past presidents of the
Devon Cattle Breeders' Society. The Devon, sometimes called the North
Devon or by its nickname, the Red Ruby, was, until the black-and-white
invasion, the basis of the dual-purpose herds that were milked in this
part of the West Country well into the 1950's. They provided the milk
which was sent off to local factories in ten-gallon churns or made into
Devonshire cream and butter in the cool, farm dairies. The steers were
grown into the beef which hung splendidly in the family butchers'shops
and was carved in large platefuls to feed teams of workers on threshing
days - the real roast beef of 'Olde England'.
When James Quartly, back in 1703, took the lease of Great
Champson from the Courtenay family, the gold and silver payment was brought
across country by pack-horse. The Quartlys were to be an influential
family in Molland for substantial parts of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Their family vault lies directly opposite the main door of
the parish church, whilst inside there are memorials on the walls to
the lives of leading members of the family. At Great Champson and at
West Molland they bred red cattle and Francis Quartly became the doyen
of West Country cattlemen and achieved fame far and wide.
In 1850 a public presentation was made to Francis; a full
length portrait of himself with his cow Cherry 66 and her calf. The presentation
was made by a Mr Acland who said that the painting embodied the manly
character, the modest and the singleness of mind of the plain English
yeoman and complimented the recipient on his success as a breeder of
North Devon cattle. Quartly made no long speech but briefly thanked the
assembled company or their compliment, drank their health, and expessed
he hope that if he had done anything to improve the breed his efforts
would be followed up by other people, and the breed would be still further
improved. Such was the man.
By the econd half of the nineteenth century the Devon breed
had become second only to the Shorthorn in numbers in Britain. In 1851
John Tanner Davy of Rose Ash started a herd book for the breed and in
1884 the Devon Cattle Beeders' Society was founded.
Today the scene is different. Black-and-white cattle dominate
the dairy sector and beef breeds imported from the continent have had
a profound influence on beef production. The majority of beef carcasses
come as crossbreds from the dairy industry, sired by bulls from breeds
such as the Belgian Blue, Limousin, Simmental and Charolais. The products
of the commercial beef suckler herds are again largely the offspring
of continental sires but the mothers are often crosses of the Devon,
the Hereford and the Aberdeen Angus with Friesian dairy cows.
As far as the pure-bred sector of the beef industry is
concerned, British native breeds, although in the minority, are much
sought after by the traditional family butcher and, despite the popularity
of supermarket shopping, much of the real quality beef is still sold
by retail butcher outlets. There is a discerning sector of the consumer
public prepared to pay a little more for quality food; crusty loaves,
free-range eggs and fresh free-range chicken. It is the same with beef.
The discerning customer is looking for 'the beef that Granny used to
cook'. Beef with enough fat to cook it properly and give it flavour,
with intramuscular marbling and fineness of texture. As one family butcher
put it: 'the CLASS, STYLE AND FLAVOUR of yesterday, still unbeaten today'.
Even farmers who rear, finish and sell continentals and continental cross
meat choose Devon beef when it comes to filling their freezer and gracing
their dinner table.
Pedigree herds within the Devon Society produce some two
thousand calves a year of which sity to eighty are registered as bulls
and five hundred or so as pedigree heifers. This leaves around nine hundred
male calves and five hundred heier calves to come onto the meat market.
A few are sold as entire young bulls but most as quality steers and heifers,
fed mainly on grass and providing succulent gourmet beef. In addition
a number of commercual and non-pedigree suckler herds supply Devon and
Devon cross, single suckled, grass fed beef which helps to boost the
supply of the quality product. At the end of the year, and pre-Christmas,
Smithfield show is the meat producers'shop window and always a meeting
place for Devon enthusiasts including the Dart brothers from Molland who, exhibiting as G. Dart & Sons have won the breed campionship
on numerous occasions.
George Dart took over as tenant of Great Champon in 1947
when his twin sons were just two years old and the family have nurtured
the farm kindly for over half a century. The basis of their farming is
native breeds; Devon cattle, first and foremost, but also Devon Closewool
sheep, Exmoor Horn sheep and Exmoor ponies. For all their success with
ponies and sheep it is for Devon cattle that the Dart family are best
known. IN 1993 the Champson Herd won the Devon Society's annual herd
competition and through the years they have amassed many prizes in the
show rings up and down the country. How pleased Francis Quartly would
be if he knew how well his work had been continued over the years. Pleased
also that the village of Molland has adopted R as their symbol letter
in the village awareness projet running across North Devon. R, of course,
stands for Red Rubies, and a special plaque is displayed in the village
to commemorate their fame. He would have een pleased as well that the
end product, the fine-textured, well-marbled beef from the Devon is in
great demand for celebration feasts.
In recent years the Devon Cattle Beeders' Society has sponsored
Devon beef at the Herdsmen's supper at the Devon County Show and at the
Diamond Jubilee banquet of the Devon Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs
while the biggest coup of all was when the Society donated the beef for
the dinner at the Oxford farming Conference. At Oxford four hundred diners,
including the Prime Minister of the time, and many national and international
guests sat down to roast sirloin o prime Devon beef. The compliments
were overwhelming, from diners and caterers alike.
What of the future - the future for Molland, the future
for Great Champson, the future for quality beef? Quality always sells
and doubtless the demand for Devon beef will be sustained. Molland itself
has an air of quality, a serene composure as an Exmoor village with contentment,
with history, with quality of life. Quality exemplified by the solid
stateliness of Great Champson and the farming traditions such as the
Darts. Quality illustrated by red cattle grazing green pastures in a
British countryside; a quality with which yemona farmers like the Quartlys
endowed Exmoor and its friendly surrounds.
That the Devons will thrive naturally and economically
on Exmoor is without question but in conservation terms there is a thought
worth leaving with the powers that be. By all means subsidise beech hedges
and natural flora, preserve traditional farmsteads and restore old sawmills
but might it also be a good idea to make headage payments to protect
and encourage the native breeds that evolved in the Exmoor environment,
including the Red Ruby?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article written by Albert and Sean Beer, appeared
in EXMOOR, The Country Magazine, Autumn 1998
Albert Beer was secretary of the Devon Cattle Breeders' Society and Sean
Beer is Senior Lecturer in Agriculture at Bournemouth University
[Permission to copy this article in its entirety has been
granted by the Exmoor Country Magazine and Messrs. Albert & Sean
Beer]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further details of the Red Ruby Cattle may be obtained
from:
Devon Cattle Breeders' Society
Tel: 01837 810942
Cattle - The Devon
www.exmoor.org.uk/reddevon.htm |
)