BEEF farmers from across the country headed to Hatherleigh Market last Wednesday to take part in a major new event showcasing the South West?s status as a source of high quality beef.

The first-ever Beef and Growing Cattle South West event attracted a range of key speakers for a forum on the future of the beef industry, and fine examples of prime beef breeds.

Bill Harper, chairman of the one-day event said he was delighted to welcome such a wide variety of people across the whole industry, among them farmers, butchers, caterers, chefs, restauranteurs, hoteliers, supermarkets and more.

Bishop of Exeter, the Rev Michael Langrish officially opened the event with a blessing. He told visitors it brought back memories of a previous visit to Hatherleigh during the height of the foot and mouth crisis.

?I don?t suppose I shall ever forget coming to Hatherleigh on Palm Sunday in 2001. All around me the hedges were bursting with signs of new life, but beyond the hedges, the fields were empty and in the air was the heavy stench of burning pyres. It was a terrible time.

?Now the fields are full again and that is something to celebrate.?

Mr Langrish said the show was taking place at a key time as farming faced perhaps the most significant changes since the post-war Agricultural Act, with the imminent introduction of the single farm payment system.

He was also critical of the Government?s attitude towards farming, saying they appeared ?not to want to listen, not to want to understand or even to want to care? about the industry.

Show president Lord Clinton of Merton welcomed visitors to Hatherleigh, which he said was a town rightly ?extremely proud? of its farming tradition.

Topics covered by

experts in the morning forum discussions were beef production, marketing opportunities for South West beef in a global context and the strengths of local and regional sourcing.

Robert Forster, National Beef Association chief executive, delivered a rallying call to farmers to realise the true worth of their product: ?You have been daft enough to subsidise the consumers, the producers and the supermarkets for many years.

?Are you mug enough to make the mistake of using your money to subsidise everyone else for years to come or are you prepared to stand up for yourselves??

In the afternoon, visitors were able to watch a cookery and butchery demonstration. Philip Warren of Launceston and Steve Turton of Turton Quality Foods demonstrated both traditional and modern methods of butchery.

Two local chefs, Paul Hostan-Pegrum of Betty Cottles, and Steve Morey of Blagdon Manor Country Hotel, Ashwater, were also there to lend a culinary hand. They were cooking alongside the butchers to give visitors information on how to cook different cuts of meat and how to use the less expensive cuts as well as the more popular.

A farmers? market featuring a wide range of local producers gave people a chance to sample some delicious food and drink. A hoof and hook carcase competition and machinery demonstrations were also run at the livestock centre.

The South West has a quarter of the national dairy herd and 11% of the national beef herd, but the high-profile event also attracted beef producers and meat buyers nationwide.

The event was sponsored by Meat South West, EBLEX (English Beef and Lamb Executive), Southern Counties Fresh Foods, Mole Valley Farmers, Dectomax, Keenan and Nat West and supported by the Farmers Weekly and Western Morning News.

To tie in with the show, two farm walks were held on the day before, first at Huish Farm in Merton to see a herd of 200 commercial crossbred suckler cows and calves, and secondly, at Stockleigh Barton in Meeth, which has a dairy herd of 130 cows and finishes all home produced beef crossbred calves on farm grown grass and grain.