Pietmontese Cattle Now Being Bred In Caithness

27th December 2015

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One of the latest cattle breeds is Piemontese and farmer Keith Dunnet at Achorn Farm, Keiss, Caithness has plans to extend the market for this premium quality meat.

The Piemontese cattle breed is a beef breed of medium size that converts forage very well into beef and has a high dressing out percentage. The quantity of commercial cuts is higher than that of bigger-sized breeds. It has very fine bones, a fine and elastic skin, a low quantity of external fat and lean and tender, but very tasty meat.

Despite their size, the weight gain of Piemontese cattle is high, reaching 1.4 kg a day in calves between weaning and slaughtering, when the feeding and environmental conditions are optimal.

The indices of the food conversion are extremely high and confer to the Piemontese a feeding efficiency which is definitely superior to all the other beef breeds.

One particular characteristic of the Piemontese cattle breed is the muscular hypertrophy, better known as the 'double muscle factor'.

The double muscling causes a considerable increase of the muscular masses and consequently of the dressing out percentage, thanks to an increase of the muscular fibres. Furthermore it causes a decrease of the quantity of inter-muscular fat and of connective tissue, giving major tenderness to the meat.

Keith said - it is a specialised market, but it is growing in popularity across the UK, as demands for healthier food options grow. My plans for the herd are that I am in talks with a Butcher in Aberdeen, who already sells Piemontese meat. Currently he imports and I hope to supply him soon. I do have other plans such as aiming at Scotlands many Italian restaurants.

Farmers over in the USA has been cross breeding Piemontese with Aberdeen Angus, they call the final beef product - Naturlean - it is hugely popular across there, it is (apparently) a very delicious, lean and tender cut of meat. So at some point, I will start cross breeding and start of down that road too.

The future looks bright for cattle in Caithness with new ideas coming through with entrepreneurial farmers like Keith Dunnet not afraid to test the market and try new ideas.