Highland Beef triumphs at the Marks & Spencer Select Farm Steak Challenge

Highland Cattle Beef
Written By Lynne Dickens
Highland Beef Steak winner at major meat competition

The Scottish National Fatstock Club hosted its Premier Meat Exhibition last week, showcasing the full range of live and carcase competitions for both beef and lamb. Alongside these established classes, Marks & Spencer, in partnership with ABP, once again organised and sponsored the Marks & Spencer Select Farm Steak Challenge.

Steaks for the competition were sourced from animals processed at Bridge of Allan during the week commencing 6 October 2025. Entries were divided into three categories - Open, Aberdeen Angus, and Organic - before being evaluated by a panel of judges. Each steak was assessed initially on appearance, followed by a blind tasting to judge eating quality.

We are delighted to report that the Open section was won by a steak from a pure Highland steer supplied by J and M Stewart of Langraw Farm, St Andrews. The carcase weighed in at 335.3kg and graded R+ 4-, demonstrating the breed’s ability to deliver both quality and consistency. Most importantly, the eating experience clearly impressed the judging panel, securing Highland beef a well-deserved win.

While we’ll never know how it might have fared against the entries in the Aberdeen Angus category, this result is a fantastic endorsement of the breed’s potential in premium beef competitions.

Lynne Dickens

Spot On Creative is a Northants-based creative team who have the hard-earned skills, expertise and industry knowledge that only come from having worked for years in advertising. It’s all managed by Lynne Dickens who has over 20 years’ experience in marketing communications, and ten years in website design and build, and creative team project management.

Lynne is also a qualified art historian and has some expertise in curating fine art exhibitions and producing all of the catalogues, posters and supporting material to create a successful event.

All the guys in our team have worked for one-man bands, SMEs and large blue-chip multinationals in just about every sector, field and industry. We can come up with great ideas, superb design and copy, and exceptional photography for anything from websites to email campaigns, branding to brochures – and everything in between.

And the beauty of Spot On Creative is that we’re big in creativity, experience and knowledge, but small in overheads and invoices. So we’re a much more sensible and affordable option for you than a larger advertising agency or marketing company.

Previous

A remarkable fundraising effort at the Royal Highland Show
Next

Neosporosis in Highland Cattle: a member's experience