Conservation must go hand in hand with consumption – therefore if a breed is to continue to be farmed in Ireland, it must be eaten. So says David Scott who, along with his wife Sandra and their five children, rear rare breed Irish Moiled cattle on the family’s Moyletra Farm in north Antrim.

“We’re trying to find a sustainable use for them. If there’s not a sustainable use, they’re only really for the zoo,” he says.

Judging by the flavour – and the demand – for the beef, it doesn’t look like there will be any issues with that.

At a Wild & Fired BBQ feast in Derry’s Brook Hall Estate, this meat was a highlight. Thick, well-marbled, tomahawk steaks were cooked dirty – directly on the coals – by chef Emily McCorkell. They were then rested, sliced thinly and devoured immediately. The flavour, enhanced by the fire, was deep and almost gamy, a delicious taste of history.

Considered to be one of the rarest cattle breeds in the country, the Irish Moiled is also one of the oldest of the surviving indigenous breeds of Irish cattle, according to the Irish Moiled Cattle Society. Vikings were allegedly raiding this breed of cattle from Ireland around 1000AD and today in Scandinavia you can find hornless cattle with similar colour markings to the Moiled in a breed called the East Finn.

“They’re [in Ireland] going back to the first century,” says David, who is the fifth generation of his family to farm on the Causeway Coast.

“My grandfather kept them as milk cows in the 1950s. Then the Charolais and Limousin came on and knocked them to the side, more or less. The [Irish Moiled cattle] were less productive than some of the new counterparts. They didn’t grow as quick and they didn’t have as much beef on their carcase. They went out of fashion.”

While they may have gone out of fashion in the farmyard, they have always been a delightfully distinctive-looking animal, with red mottled markings and a white line down the back.

Of medium size – mature cows weigh up to 650kg, in contrast to a mature Charolais cow which can weigh up to 1200kg – Irish Moileds do not have horns and according to David, are “very docile.”

They’re sturdy cattle, well-suited to grazing marginal land, and they were traditionally popular as dairy cows throughout Ireland, particularly in the northern parts of the country. They fell out of favour in the second half of the 20th century.

Decline of breed

The decline was rapid. By 1979, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust had classified them as endangered as there were only about 30 of these animals left in the world. Since then, there has been a concentrated effort to revive the breed and now the numbers are much healthier: In 2021, there were 900 fully registered Irish Moiled cattle, 500 in Northern Ireland, 150 in the Republic and the rest in the UK and elsewhere.

With its renaissance, the Irish Moiled has become known as a truly dual-purpose animal, with the ability to produce excellent milk and beef from poor grazing. The animals are natural foragers, eating a wide variety of grasses and weeds, making them ideal as conservation grazers.

With its traditional flavour and quality of marbling, this rare breed Irish beef is a premium product. “When we started, I gave a sample to a neighbour who was maybe around 80 years old who said this was the beef they remembered as a child,” says David.

Regenerative farming works but you need to link the breed of cattle into the system. It’s not going to work with a commercial breed of cattle

The farm sells direct to the public – an everyday beef box with a selection of cuts, including mince, steak pieces and roasts costs £100 (€120) – and chefs have also been taking notice of it. David supplies steaks and burgers to The Boathouse Antrim, Causeway Boats in Portrush Harbour and Castlerock’s MeatBox, along with Derry-based Emily McCorkell’s Wild & Fired BBQ. She’s an unabashed fan.

“When I first experienced it, I thought, ‘oh, this is really good,’ but there’s a lot of good beef out there,” says McCorkell, “The more I’ve interacted and worked with [Moyletra Moiled] meat, the more I realised, this is how it should taste. It’s such a pure, wild, beefy taste. It’s an honour to be able to cook it in a world of highly processed meats. This is how farming should be done. It’s natural, it’s slow.”

“They’re a slow-growing animal,” agrees David, who also works full-time off the farm. “It takes 30-36 months for them to mature on their own. They grow on at their own pace. But that’s where you’re getting your quality.”

He runs about 120 Irish Moileds on his land. The cattle are grass-fed and he’s able to keep two-thirds of the herd out all year round, grazing conservation ground in the winter months from November to the end of March.

“Regenerative farming works but you need to link the breed of cattle into the system. It’s not going to work with a commercial breed of cattle.”

By delving back into the past and focusing on a rare breed animal, David has taken steps to future-proof his family farm and his care for the land is evident.

“I’ve always been on the farm,” he says. “I’ve been farming all my life. I’m 43 now. My wife Sandra is involved and my children are involved. A niche market is a more pleasurable way of farming. You do it for the love of doing it.”

Discover more about Moyletra Moileds at moilies.co.uk