At Dunwood we keep herds of English Longhorn, Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle. Three breeds that are synonymous with our country’s heritage and reputation for producing incredible beef.  We also cross a small number to Wagyu each year, which whilst not a native breed, do fit perfectly with our desire to only sell the best.

We calve our herds outside in the spring, after which the cows and calves graze together outside on lush pasture until early winter.  Calves spend their first 8 months living on a diet of their mother’s milk and fresh grass only.  During the winter we house our cattle and feed them on conserved grass and some grain.  All cattle then graze for a second summer before being finished at around two years old.  As a farming business we also buy in additional native breed cattle at various ages in order to ensure year round supply of cattle finished to our exacting standards.

The breeds we keep were specifically chosen for their superior eating characteristics, and ability to thrive on our grass based system.  The high level of intramuscular fat from these breeds, gives the marbling that we know leads to succulent, tasty beef.

We also work with a small group of local farmers, who produce native breed, suckler beef.  This means that at times we have supply of Shorthorn, Highland, Red Poll, Dexter, Galloway and Traditional Hereford.  For our catering customers we also buy in additional steak meat on the bone from a processor that works directly with their farmer suppliers.  This steak meat is always bought on the bone, is always Aberdeen Angus, is always English and is selected for us for high marbling.

Beef is then dry aged on the bone in the traditional way for four weeks in our own specialist cold stores, lined with Himalayan Salt blocks. It is this maturing process that imparts wonderful flavour characteristics into the beef, and produces superbly tender steaks.