STOKE Climsland farmer, Tim Lightfoot has won a prestigious award at the World Steak Challenge 2022.

Tim, who thought he’d ‘enter for a laugh’ has won the top award, the Gold award, for his beef Ribeye.

The competition, World Steak Challenge puts the world’s finest cuts to the test and gives steak producers and suppliers the opportunity to showcase product quality on a global stage. Competition entrants are from all over the world  including countries such as Australia, Japan and Ireland and the categories were fillet, ribeye and sirloin.

Tim entered the competition last year under the name Dunbia, the abbatoir that Tim uses, and found out this month that he has won the Gold award. Tim also received a large banner to enable him to promote his beef when he takes cattle to any shows in the future.

Tim said: ‘Dunbia had done all the cuts and entered all the steak cuts into the competition for me back in November last year. We then knew we’d won back in January, but we didn’t know what we’d get.

‘We’re over the moon for winning it.

‘We thank Dubia for putting us forward for the competition. We didn’t expect to get a gold award being a world competition. If it was only a local competition it would be a bit different  but a world competition you just think we’ll enter that for a laugh. But it was a bit more serious than we thought.’

For Tim, the win isn’t just for his beef but for British beef, for promoting the quality of the beef that is produced in this country.

Tim expressed the importance of winning the award for promoting British beef and said:

‘For British beef it’s a giant step. We have got the best beef in the world, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve also got all the rules and regulations that no one else has got, so it proved to be worthwhile in the end.’

Tim’s farm, Alren Farm which is located near Stoke Climsland is a 550-acre beef and arable farm. The farm has already been recognised as a quality beef-supplier supplying beef to supermarket,  Marks and Spencer and is listed on the M&S website as one of their assured farm suppliers.

Tim’s herd consists of Charolais cows and Charolais and Aberdeen Angus bulls. The breed that produced his winning ribeye was a grass-fed Charolais, a french breed of cattle.

Tim expressed that the award might encourage supermarkets to support British farmers and British agriculture as a whole.

Tim, an advocate for British beef and supporting local agriculture has delivered talks in Stoke Climsland and has given talks to local WI groups to try and promote buying locally and has also written a piece in the Cornish mutual monthly magazine.

Moreover, when supermarkets come to visit, Tim encourages them to support British farmers. Tim said: ‘Why bring food from half way around the world if it’s already here? We’ve got to have more for what we produce, otherwise it won’t be there.’