Glenarm beef innovator in line for top UK award

A key figure in the development of the multi-award winning Glenarm shorthorn beef has been shortlisted for the prestigious Beef Innovator of the Year 2017 in the influential British Farming Awards.

Bryan Wilson, farm manager at Glenarm Castle Estate in county Antrim, is in line for the top award in the annual event organised by the Farmers Guardian newspaper in Britain supported by Morrisons retail chain. The Beef Innovator category is sponsored by ABP Food Group.

Wilson has worked alongside Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats in Northern Ireland on the development of the successful beef brand which has won acclaim internationally for outstanding taste and texture.

The beef is aged by Hannan in its complex of Himalayan salt chambers in Moira, county Down and has won a string of awards including Supreme Champion in the UK Great Taste Awards.

Glenarm Shorthorn cattle, an established Irish breed, are reared to best practice, on a high clover, grass based system and the winter housing is of the highest welfare standard.

The Co Antrim estate converted to organic methods in 2008. There has been a castle at Glenarm since the 13th century and is currently owned by Randal McDonnell, Viscount Dunluce.

The 1,000 acre upland unit has also won Morrisons Beef Shorthorn Suckler Herd of the Year.

Glenarm shorthorn beef from Hannan Meats is now successful throughout the UK and Ireland and is preferred by top chefs such as Mark Hix, Terry Laybourne and Nigella Lawson. It is also on sale in Fortnum and Mason in London.

The British Farming Awards, the results of which will be announced at a major event in Birmingham in October, are among the most important in the UK agri-food industry.