"We have some going down to Wellington soon, and some of our steak will be served at a celebration dinner in June, when the New Zealand Red Devon Cattle Breeder's Association celebrate 175 years since the Red Devon breed came to New Zealand."
This year was Bob and Karen's second time entering the awards, and the first time they made it to the finals. "It was really exciting hearing we had made it through, and the win means we can back up what we already believed, we knew our meat was good, now we have proof it is as good as we say it is."
The couple have had Red Devon since 1995.
"We left dairying around then, and were dairy grazing, You can't push young stock so you always need a clean up mob. We decided we might as well have something that gave us an interest, so we got the Red Devon in."
The couple then had a small stud for some time, until a couple of years ago when they got involved in helping out students at Taratahi, providing two year old steers for them to work with in preparation for the Hoof and Hook competition each year. "At that point we decided to use the Red Devon for two things, the one side of it was providing the steers for the next generation of beef farmers to train with and the second part was to breed our animals for the niche market in New Zealand."
Karen is the president of the New Zealand Red Devon Cattle Breeder's Association and encourages people with an interest in the breed to visit the website to find out more.