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Mearns farmer Doug Smith’s life-long love of Simmental cattle set him thinking about  selling meat from Simmental-sired cattle direct to shoppers.

Mr Smith runs the well-known Drumsleed herd of pedigree Simmentals at Drumsleed, Fordoun, Laurencekirk, with his parents Gerald and Morag.

The family is well known on the show and sales circuit and now Doug, the fourth generation of the Smith family working the land at Drumsleed, has launched his own venture with a focus on selling top-quality beef direct to consumers.

Together with his wife Fiona, who runs the successful Spud Hut farm shop at the neighbouring Cairnton Farm, Mr Smith has plans to sell meat from some of Drumsleed’s 130-cow herd of commercial cattle.

The commercial herd, which comprises cross Simmental, Salers and Shorthorn cattle, runs alongside the 100-cow pedigree herd.

“I’m a huge lover of the Simmental breed in general and the butcher that we are using said Simmentals produce a very good cut as well,” said Mr Smith.

“It’s something a bit different. Everybody usually goes for the native breeds but because we are Simmental breeders I wanted to use them.”

He has teamed up with Forfar-based butcher and Aberdeen-Angus breeder, Alan Rennie, to launch the enterprise.

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We also have a Beef Shorthorn heading for Stirling this weekend too. ✅Semen Tested ✅BVD Accredited ✅Johnes Risk Level 1* ✅Lepto Accredited ✅TB4 ✅Bluetongue Vaccinated Whisky was 3rd in his class at the Royal Highland Show which was a really strong class. Drumsleed Whisky(Pp) Date of birth 16/03/25 Sire Glenisla Samson (PP) Dam Nonpareil X1221 of Upsall (P) Lot No 178
Drumsleed Sizzler 25 (P) Date of birth 20/02/25 Sire-Coose Negotiator Dam-Drumsleed Ileana 17 Lot No 277
Drumsleed Santana 25 (P) Date of birth 09/02/25 Sire-Coose Negotiator Dam-Drumsleed Jaffa 18 Lot No 269
Drumsleed Sonic 25 Date of birth 06/04/25 Sire-Dellfield Kingpin Dam-Drumsleed Kourtney Lot No 325
Drumsleed Sundance 25 Date of birth 14/03/25 Sire-Rockytop Lucifer 20 Dam-Drumsleed Ebony 13 Lot No 286
Drumsleed Saturn 25 (P) Date of birth 02/02/25 Sire-Coose Negotiator Dam-Drumsleed Milani 21 Lot No 264
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