It was one of the triumphs of the Victorians' passion for agricultural improvement. But the beef shorthorn is very much back in fashion – and nowhere more so that on a Wiltshire farm now supplying local butchers with quality traditional breed meat.

Years of selective breeding bequeathed 19th- century farmers a classic, dual-purpose animal. It matured more quickly than old longhorned breeds and its popularity was underlined when a shorthorn become the first animal to make £100 in a sale.

And it was a natural choice when Charles Horton and his wife Margaret were looking for traditional breeds to stock Nell Farm in Hannington, near Swindon, on the upper reaches of the Thames.

Five years down the line, the enterprise, run on a low-input system, is flourishing – and local shoppers are among those who are sharing the taste of success.

Charles said when he and his wife took over the farm, local butchers were complaining that they could not get a consistent supply of traditional and rare breed meat.

"We looked at various breeds and it was the beef shorthorn, the Llanwenog sheep and Large Black pigs that came to the fore," he said.

"We can grow plenty of grass here and they do well on grass with minimal feed requirements."

The area around Hannington was traditionally dairying country and prior to the 1960s the Horton family ran three dairy shorthorn herds.

But now the Hannington herd numbers 40 spring calvers and 15 autumn calvers with another 15 heifers calving in the autumn of 2008.

The cattle, as well as the sheep, are finished on grass and silage in the winter. Steers are finished at two years old, weighing 650-700kg live, generally killing out at about 50 per cent.

Most females are kept for breeding although, with high prices for finished beef, Charles reckons he has to get a minimum of £1,000 a head for them for breeding sales to be worthwhile.

"I sell all the finished livestock privately at a premium for traditional breed meat and at an equivalent pence per kilo for Continental cattle," he said. "Shorthorns don't yield as much meat as a Continental cross-bred animal, but they are producing what the family butcher wants."

The Hortons' operation involves minimal food miles: cattle, sheep and pigs (bought in as weaners) are slaughtered in Witney and sold to butchers in Cirencester and in Lechlade – all within a 10 miles from the farm.

One of the contented clients is Tony Cutler who runs Cutler and Bayliss in Lechlade and specialises in traditional breeds of meat. "Shorthorn beef is a good, traditional butcher's animal with a bit of fat and a good shape which is nice to work with," he said.

"The customers love it because of its eating qualities and also because it is local. The steaks are particularly popular."

Calving at Nell Farm starts from April 10 and the spring-born calves are weaned at housing in mid-November. Housing is essential because the ground is heavy and wet. The aim is to have most of the herd calving in the spring to keep the need for creep feeding to a minimum with heifers calving at two-and-a-half years old.

The Hortons have a mainly arable farm running to 400 acres near Basingstoke as well as the 300 grassland acres at Nell and 650 acres, mainly arable, in Poulton, near Cirencester, where there are 80 acres of dry grassland suitable for out-wintering the dry cows and the sheep.

A nd, says Charles, they will definitely be sticking with the pure-bred shorthorn. "The breed is increasing in popularity nationally but we must continue to get the message out that these cattle can live off grass and fresh air all the year round," he said

"There is a very low labour requirement; in fact, I have been running the cattle and sheep on my own with some part-time help before we increased the sheep numbers.

"They are so easy to handle and quiet. When we had other Continental crosses we used to spend a lot of time running around after them and mending fences.

"The shorthorn cows also calve without any assistance and they are wonderful mothers, allowing calves to cross suckle. They are a lazy man's cow. Ours are at grass all summer and get silage only in winter. They are cheap to keep.

"If you are able to outwinter them, a shorthorn cross-suckler cow put to a beef terminal sire makes an ideal beef enterprise which can also save on buildings.

"Continental cross-sucklers are costing so much to keep. We had a pen of 15 Simmental cows and they ate as much silage as a pen of 30 shorthorn cows."

He says such are the qualities of the breed that is should be seriously considered by farmers in the hill areas of such as Exmoor and Dartmoor.

"Feeding a suckler cow concentrates seems to be throwing away money. Give the shorthorns some decent grass and they will grow well," he said.