The winning tips from a South Devons' devotee

Mr Tollerton, 51, is a lifelong fan of South Devons and has been running them since 1976. His best cow, six-year-old Brafferton Stella the 26th, who was central to several of the winning line-ups which won him the overall herd title on points, is descended from his original stock.

He has about 40 breeding cows, with followers, on a cousin's land at Grafton, and two bulls.

He recently lost one and is looking for a replacement – likely to cost around 5,000.

He starts calving his heifers in their third year and sells mainly to commercial beef farmers looking for good mothers but some go to other thoroughbred breeders and a few spares directly into the meat market.

The breed has served him well, he says, thanks to the trend back to low-maintenance cattle. There are not many South Devons in Yorkshire, although they thrive where he is, and he goes to Carlisle, Bristol, Stratford and Exeter, to buy and sell – mainly to sell, because he tries to keep the herd self-sustaining, with an extra-wary eye on the danger of buying in TB, because of the breed's strong West Country connections.

Only about three of his cows are not home-bred.

The South Devon produces a rich milk, similar to a Jersey's, he says, and is still a popular dairy animal in Devon, although used mainly as a beef suckler elsewhere.

"I've sold a few down that way, so I knew I must be doing something right," he said this week.

He will lead the judging of next year's competition.