Broadgate sits on the western edge of the Eden Valley, where the limestone soils grow some of the finest meadow grass in the north of England. Ifan moved his fold of Welsh Blacks here from mid-Wales in 2012 because, as he puts it, 'the grass writes a better story than I ever could.'
The Welsh Black is one of Britain's oldest native cattle breeds, a true dual-purpose breed historically kept for both milk and meat, but now valued almost entirely for the quality of its slow-grown beef.
Ifan finishes his cattle at 30 months on grass alone, with a small ration of home-grown oats for the final eight weeks. The result is a deeply marbled, dark-red beef with a particular nuttiness that comes, he believes, from the herbs in the Eden Valley sward.
“A Welsh Black on Cumbrian grass has the best of both countries in her.”