The MOAGGA Story

Having renovated, opened and operated The Plough Inn in 2013, Nick & Lors decided in 2018 it was time to start a family and go farming. The family farm, owned since 1993 is located on the outskirts of Cold Aston village and compromises nearly 600 acres of typical Cotswold hills and deep valleys. Much of the nearly 200 acres of permanent pastures are too steep for anything else except grazing, historically by the sheep that the Cotswolds are famous for. However, Nick & Lors were not sheep lovers and shuddered at the thought of bringing back a herd after the last grazing lease holder gave notice. They did like cows though, and really like beef too. The problem was the banks were too steep for large modern commercial cattle breeds, but they knew that Traditional native breeds could handle it, so an idea was hatched...

Not long after, a chance meeting in this very pub led to a conversation with a man who happened to be the retiring Chairman of the Midlands Dexter Society. Long story short (and after a certain amount of due diligence - eating the beef, which blew our minds!) we bought his entire closed breeding herd after realising Dexter Cattle were the solution to our grazing management problem. Four short years later and with two children in tow, the Family have established the 50 strong MOAAGA herd of Pedigree Dexters on Grove Farm. The herd prefix are the combined initials of our children Maia and Albert Avery.

Now the opportunity has come to bring that home raised beef to the Plough Inn, so more people can taste the wonderful product these amazing cattle produce. Calves are born outside in the summer and spend the best part of their first year at their mothers hooves. After weaning at 10ish months these young cattle then spend an idyllic natural life grazing the organically farmed pastures not reaching full maturity until 3-4 years of age. Fed exclusively on our own grass, these slow growing native cattle produce a deep flavoured and beautifully marbled beef which combines the perfect combination of ethical production, environmental land management and quality of product. All of the beef on our menu is home raised a mere single mile from the Restaurant, matured for 3 weeks in carcass and then further dry aged in house and cooked over fire for what we hope will be the best beef our customers have ever tasted!