Business Profile: Red Ruby Kate Beef Boxes

When was the business started? I bought my first Red Ruby Devon heifers in 2018 and have added to them each year since.

What made you set up the business? I was very lucky to get aWelsh Government Grant forYoung Entrants Into Agriculture, and I was able to buy my first cattle. I wanted to be able to do cattle work by myself and our Charolais cross cattle were quite a handful so I chose the Red Ruby Devon breed.They mostly have a placid nature, are good mothers and easy calvers so need less input.With our children interested in cattle having a good natured breed was important to me.

Where are you based? I live with my partner and three children in Painscastle.

Tell us about the team behind Red Ruby Kate Beef: My partner and I look after the pedigree herd of Red Ruby Devons, a commercial cattle herd producing Charolais crosses and we also have Welsh Mountain sheep. Our three children are helpful on the farm and we all muck in to get jobs done together.

Were you born on a farm? No, I was born in Brighton so this is a very different life for me now! I absolutely love it though. Farming is a great way to mix work and family as we get to spend a lot of time together.

How can our readers buy your beef? I am finishing two cattle a month throughout the autumn so you are very welcome to come on my waiting list for the next boxes! I have a website where you can order beef, (www.redrubykate.co.uk), I am also in Hay Market once a month and you can also follow me on Instagram and message me directly @redrubykate.

What makes your beef special? My cattle are slow matured so they have at least two summers to roam the fields and hills, which has a massive effect on the depth of flavour and delicious marbled meat produced. We keep our animals for around 30 months and we hang the meat for at least 28 days. I feel that the cattle have a happy free life with us in these Welsh hills!

Do you have a favourite cow or are they all the same? I have a favourite cow called Mermaid. She is very gentle and loves a scratch. I think she will breed me a calf worthy of taking to a show one day!

What is your greatest achievement in your business? Getting the meat back from my first finished bullock was a huge achievement for me as it had been four years since I bought my first heifers. Then it has been amazing getting lots of positive feedback from people who had bought the meat.

Two lessons having your own business has taught you? It really has taught me to believe in myself as no one will believe in you if you don’t! It has also taught me to be brave and try new things like handling machinery and looking after the cattle in a way that suits my way of farming.

List one thing you wish you could change about your business: The butcher that I use is amazing but ideally I would change my business to have my own chiller room and cutting room so that I could hang my animals myself and have more control over the cuts of meat that I get back. I would love to try dry-aging a whole animal.

List five goals on your business to-do list:

1. Grow my customer base.

2. Do more farm tours to be able to talk to customers directly and teach them about the process behind the meat.

3. Learn more about unusual cuts.

4. Look into having beef tasting evenings where people get to try the meat cooked to perfection.

5. Supply restaurants with my beef and explain to the customers the story behind slow food.

What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you whilst doing your job? When we got a new bull he had obviously never seen a pond before. When we let him out into the fields with his new ladies he ran over and thought that the pond weed was grass, jumped straight in and had to swim out! I didn’t know bulls could look embarrassed but he definitely did!

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know? Believe in yourself and you can do anything! Just because you are not from a farming background does not mean that you can’t farm.There are such great opportunities for women in farming at the moment and there are more and more women that are farmers in their own right, not farmers wives. If you want to do it enough, you will, but you have got to love it because day in day out, come rain or shine, it can be a tough job.

What have you done today to make you feel proud? I feel proud every day that I go round my cattle because they look happy and I know that I am looking after them the best I can. I am proud that I have worked hard to do something that I love, and that I get to do it every day!

Sum your business up in five words: Buy meat from happy cattle.