Charolais Abbenbroek

Charolais Abbenbroek is a beef farm on the Oude Waaldijk in Abbenbroek that keeps a pedigree herd of Charolais suckler cows and sells the meat of its own bulls in packages to private buyers.

The cattle are outside for about six months of the year, partly on a piece of nature reserve in Biert, and the calves, born in winter, stay with their mothers in the meadow until about the end of September. The young bulls are then brought home and kept apart from the heifers to be finished, going outside again in their second summer where possible, and they are slaughtered at around 20 months. Their website does not say what the bulls eat while they are finished. Each package weighs about 25 kg and holds a mix of cuts: burgers, sausages, mince, steak tartare, several steaks including fillet, roast beef, braising cuts, soup meat and bones.

The farm slaughters about every three months and announces each round by email, and packages go to buyers in order of sign-up. The meat comes fresh, so buyers portion and freeze it themselves. To get on the list, leave a message through the contact form on their website.

The heifers are first put in calf at about two years, a few months later than is usual for dairy cows, so they grow out fully and calve easily, and a cow stays in the herd until she can no longer have calves.