Hi all any ideas on a certain ideally dual purpose starter breed of cattle to begin working with & to get into showing.
Ideally I'm after a quiet traditional British breed - That I can keep a few in calf girls on the farm all year round away from our main herd & to take to a few shows x
I'm not really sure what you mean by dual purpose - to me that means for milk and beef, but the rest of your post doesn't seem to support that.
We have Shetlands and we love them - they are true dual purpose animal, being the original crofter's house cow. However, that doesn't sound like what you are looking for - sounds like you want a traditional beef animal.
If you want to breed and show, then look around your local show classes - there are never classes for Shetlands, so the only shows we can go to are those with "any other breed" or, better, "any other native breed". If your local shows don't have these, and showing is important, you'd be better to go for a breed that does have classes. Round here, most shows have classes for Highlands, AA and the continentals but it varies from show to show.
We saw some lovely traditional Herefords at the Welsh Smallholder Show, but again, you probably wouldn't want to show these against the more modern Canadian / American type Herefords.