Dittisham Farm - Red Ruby Cattle
This page is all about Dittisham Farm's North Devon cattle, a.k.a. 'Red Rubies'.
Page contents, click on the subject to go straight there:
2. Organic well-hung Red Ruby beef
3. Red Ruby breeding heifers for sale.
We have 8 breeding cows therefore we have an average of 4 heifers and 4 bullocks born every year. The bullocks become steers, finished for meat. Ditto any inferior heifers. The best heifers are sold as breeding stock - we can hold them until they are in-calf, as we obtained a new young Pedigree bull in 2004 that is unrelated to all our current stock.
The bull is full pedigree Little Thriverton Endeavour, known affectionately as 'Eric'.
3 of the cows are on the Red Ruby 'extra' register, as they have a little Saler blood in them. A pure Saler cow looks like a very big Red Ruby Devon cow. This blood was introduced to improve the breed; these three cows are bigger than our other cows, with good back-ends and a little more of the French temperament. They produce cracking good calves.
5 of the cows are on the Red Ruby 'supplementary' register. This is because they originate from a farm on Exmoor that did not register their stock with the Devon Cattle Breeders Society (DCBS). We bought our first 3 cows at auction in Barnstaple. Subsequently we had them checked over by the DCBS inspector who agreed they were definitely Red Rubies, so they were accepted onto the 'supplementary' or 'non-pedigree, ancestors unknown' register.
Covered by the pedigree bull they also produce some fantastic steers that make for brilliant traditional beef, full of marbling. Well hung, for about 3 weeks, the meat has a tenderness and fantasically sweet taste not found in all breeds of beef. We think it is the best.
ORGANIC WELL-HUNG RED RUBY BEEF
All the beef has organic status. We sell the beef from the farm in freezer bags of 1/8th of a carcase. In other words, as the steaks, joints and mince are vacuum packed the packs are distributed evenly into eight sacks. All 8 sacks thus have the same selection of all the different beef cuts, vacuum-sealed into packs of convenient sizes, and labelled with the name of the cut, the weight, and the use-by date.
These sacks can vary from 20 - 25 Kg, costing £2.80 / pound or £6.16 / kilogram - best steaks and joints for the cost of organic mince. Good value.
Red Ruby breeding heifers for sale.
As at December 2006 we have just the two heifers for sale:
Heifers ear tags numbers 14 & 15. Born April 2004.