There's nothing beastly about Dexter beef – in fact, it's divine, says Richard McComb.

It started off as a hobby so Michael Bancroft could see more of his wife and two children.

Michael, a contract milker, was working for a company selling animal feed and had to attend agricultural shows, which took place at weekends.

He and his wife Susan bought a couple of Dexter cattle with the intention of entering them into competitions.

“The only way I would see the family was to buy some cattle to show,” recalled Michael.

“We thought about Aberdeen Angus but they were £5,000 to £6,000 for show animals. Dexters were £500 to £600. That was the motivating point. It was a purely financial decision.

“Unfortunately, Dexters are a disease. When you get into them, you are lumbered with them. They are not like normal cattle. They are characters.”

The Bancrofts now have 180 Dexters at Church Farm, a 230-acre site of rolling green hills and valley-like pasture at Preston Bagot, near Henley-in-Arden.

They once had 220 cattle, comprising one of the biggest herds of its type in the country, but Michael, now aged 65, is running down the stock as part of a five-year plan leading up to retirement.

But there is no lessening of his passion for the breed and the wonderful, succulent marbled beef Dexters produce.

A sirloin, which I took home from the small farm shop and roasted a day later, was beyond compare. The Warwick butcher Rumps also stocks the Bancrofts’ beef. Lucky Warwick.

Having seen the conditions in which the cattle live, and the care showered on them, the quality of the meat was no surprise.

These are glorious beasts, the smallest cattle breed in Britain, and it’s not difficult to see why they attract such a loyal following. Dexters, originally from south-west Ireland, stand a little under or over a metre at the shoulder, and can be short legged.

Michael reckons they are about half the size of an Aberdeen Angus and are usually black in colour, but are also red or dun, a light tan.

After a couple of minutes at Church Farm, it was soon clear why Michael referred to Dexters as characters, although you might add “vocal” into the description.

As we approached a large shed, 40 calves aged nine to ten months surged towards the gate, emitting sporadic honking noises.

They thought we had food or were about to let them out for a late-morning roam.

I told Michael, a member of the Stoneleigh-based Dexter Cattle Society, that I had never heard such noisy cattle.

“Oh, these are quiet at the moment. Dexters are known as gobby,” he said. “You should have been here at the weekend. They were at it all night. What a racket.”

They are fantastic, pocket-sized (although you’d need big, well enforced pockets) cattle.

Michael said: “They are small animals so you get less meat. But, because of their size, people are attracted to them. The cute factor comes into it.

“The other thing with Dexters is that you cannot drive them. They will follow you but if you have 12 Dexters and you try to drive them they will go 13 ways.

“You can tempt them in with food but you can’t herd them.”

All the female breeding cattle have names with the farm’s prefix of Moonshine, which was chosen by the Bancrofts’ children, Mark and Mary.

The chaps, except the bulls, don’t tend to hang around too long. “They never get named,” said Michael. “Rump steak, if you like.”

Two females, Angel, aged three-and-a-half, and Twilight, six, were in a shed next to the rowdy calves.

I wondered if they had been put in the naughty room for playing up, but Michael explained the duo had particularly strong maternal instincts, a common feature of the breed.

It turned out they had been put near their offspring for their own protection.

Michael said: “They were in the field and were pacing about.

“They were determined to get to their calves. They would have burst through the fences. If they go through barbed wire they will burst their udders, just to get to their young.”

The cattle feed only on grass and lick from mineral blocks containing trace elements, one of the blocks laced with garlic to help repel garlic-hating flies.

There are no cereals to fatten them up and finish them off.

In line with their idiosyncratic streak, Michael explained the cattle would not eat thistles unless they had been cut – in which case they will gobble them up after a few minutes.

Characters, you see.

Perdita, one of Michael’s prize cattle, was in a lower field.

She has bagged 20 prizes across the Midlands and further afield, including best of breed titles, and her son, Oberon, is one of the farm’s three bulls.

Topaz, who is 15, was suckling her 13th calf in the same field as Perdita and is remarkable, consistently delivering her calves within a 10-day window each year. She is a clockwork mum.

Susan was out for the day and Michael was fending for himself.

A large piece of rump steak was defrosting for his tea in the farmhouse kitchen.

Although he is winding down his stock, selling 30 to 40 a year, Michael remains committed to promoting and raising the quality of Dexter beef.

With this in mind, Church Farm’s cattle have just become the first Dexter herd in the country to a undergo so-called linear assessment, a detailed inspection of all aspects and traits of an animal.

Body depth, rear leg set and rump angle are just a few of the factors analysed by independent assessors with the aim of boosting breed standards and ensuring premium quality beef.

A maximum of 97 points can be awarded and 75 to 79 is categorised as “good.” Michael’s top score, for Moonshine Pickle, was 88, just two points off “excellent.”

Pickle has now been sold for breeding in Cornwall.

As any shopper knows, prime cuts of quality beef, such as fillet and sirloin, are costly but do not get the wrong idea about the commercial potential of farming Dexters.

Michael said that, without the £13,000 single farm payment received from the Government each year, the farm wouldn’t make a penny.

“It is a way of life, not a living, and as we slow down we will not be making any money,” he said.

* www.dextercattle.co.uk