The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2019 - Issue 60 | Page 50

50 BLACKSMITHS COTTAGE
DEC/JAN 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk
What are you
looking at?
INTERBREED TITLE
BRINGS BACK THE BUZZ
Chris Berry talks with Adrian Johnson at Yearsley.
You’re looking at the
most cost-effective
suckler cow.
Choose Aberdeen-Angus.
More than just a breed,
it’s a brand.
Pedigree House,
6 King’s Place,
Perth PH2 8AD
Tel: [phone]
www.aberdeen-angus.co.uk
DURING my 28 years writing about
farms and farming families in Yorkshire
I have met many wonderful people,
many who I now call friends and even
though we may only talk once every
few years or simply acknowledge
each other at livestock markets, spe-
cial events, gatherings or shows there
is a bond.
Amongst my really good firm friends
are the lovely couple Adrian and
Penny Johnson of Yearsley, between
Easingwold and Helmsley. I could
gladly go and while away the hours
with them chatting about their Aber-
deen Angus cattle and showing, my
music and writing. They’ve been to my
concerts and I’ve watched them in the
show rings many times – and while
I’m on with this you can add in Steve
and Gilly Johnson too, Steve being
Adrian’s brother. Four down to earth,
heart on their sleeves people whose
company I enjoy dearly.
Phew! That’s a start isn’t it? Now
on with Adrian and Penny this time
around, their amazing 2018 show sea-
son, how he and Penny built up their
herd, hopes, dreams, expectations and
how they are both coping with Adrian’s
various ailments that have knocked
him back once or twice but never off
course – as indeed Steve and Gilly
cope too with their tribulations.
Let me take you back to the Sunday
night the day before last year’s Nid-
derdale Show. Early next morning was
to bring about a result that had smiles
beaming from their faces.
‘It was the top,’ says Adrian. ‘I was
tired and had said I wasn’t up for
going, but I’d see how I felt in the
morning. When I woke to good weath-
er and a good forecast and knowing
that Martin Grayshon as chief cattle
steward always makes things easy we
decided to go.’
Apart from the Great Yorkshire
Show Adrian and Penny had won
everywhere they had entered at
North Yorkshire County Show, Malton,
Ryedale and Huby & Sutton where
they had taken the Interbreed title.
‘We’d already had a great year with
Yearsley Royal Lady a two year old
hell of a heifer. When she was a calf
she had won at the North of England
Calf Show and she’d won as a yearling
the following year.’
‘In our heyday we were doing 14
shows a year but a combination of
two strokes, a pancreas that doesn’t
work, eyes that flicker, worrying
extremes of blood pressure, the pills I
now take and perhaps a natural feeling
that we’d been there and done that I’d
felt I didn’t get the buzz out of winning
anymore. How wrong was I!’
‘Yearsley Royal Lady won her class
then took the breed title. Okay, we’ve
done that before. Then she took the
Native Interbreed title. Yes, we’ve done
that before, but then we were stood in
the Overall Interbreed Championship
for the best beast at the show.’
It’s fair to say at this point Adrian’s
buzz even if it hadn’t come back was
inching ever nearer. He may even
have needed his blood pressure moni-
toring for what was to happen next.
‘That’s when I started thinking that if
we won it would really be something
else. We’d had two Interbreed cham-