The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2019 - Issue 60 | Page 51

BLACKSMITHS COTTAGE 51 • DEC/JAN 2019 pions previously that rated highly in my book – one at Ryedale and the other at Stokesley both with bulls we had bought. I knew it would be quite something for an Aberdeen Angus to win the supreme title on the showfield as natives usually struggle to beat continentals – and being our own homebred heifer would make it even better.’ ‘When I saw the two judges look at each other I thought wow! I knew we were in with a chance. We were up against a Belgian Blue.’ Yearsley Royal Lady took the title. Adrian and Penny’s deci- sion to go had paid off. It was the icing on the cake to their summer agricultural show season. All that remains for both Adrian and Steve is to pull off their respective breed championship titles in the Beef Shorthorn (Steve) and Aberdeen Angus breeds at the Great York- shire Show. ‘Dad and our grandfather were both big pedigree breeders and showmen. Dad showed British Friesians and Steve and I had pedigree breeds rammed down our throats, in the best possible manner, since we drew breath. We’ve both studied cattle breed- ing and we both won student of the year titles, Steve at Askham Bryan College and me at Bishop Burton College, but dad for all he tried never won the overall bred title at Harrogate and neither have we as yet. We’ve made a pact that if we ever manage it we will take the rosette and put it on his gravestone.’ It’s all a far cry from when Adrian and Penny started their showing career. Adrian had built up a successful AI business, North Yorkshire AI, which evolved into a cattle pregnancy scanning M Waite & Son enterprise. Last year he scanned 16,000 cows from October to May. He’s been scanning since 1997 and has a Royal Veterinary College certificate. ‘It supports our Angus herd as it keeps cashflow going when we are not making Angus sales. But when we started showing over 30 years ago we were a joke. I’d been doing some work for Godfrey Thomas of Rising Sun Farm who is sadly no longer with us and he had been talked into having Aber- deen Angus. He asked whether I’d show them for him.’ ‘Our first show was the Royal Highland and talk about being up to our necks in mire! The Angus cow had lost its calf and he had got a crossbred Charolais                      calf from a chap in Helmsley to replace it. As if that wasn’t enough of a problem it was pure white. I was getting the classic question ‘do they go black as they get older?’ There were 17 in the class and I swear we were placed 18th! I learned more that week than at any other time.’ Showing Aberdeen Angus for Mrs Staveley of Saltergate brought about the start of their own herd. ‘When Mrs Staveley made her move to the Borders 30 years ago she offered us the choice of her heifers and we chose yearling Saltergate Pride M9 who went on to breed us four heifers and it was her heifer calf that won us our first red ticket in 1991. We’ve never stopped since. We didn’t buy an- other for about ten years, steadily building up our own homebred herd.’ Around eight years ago Adrian suffered his first stroke. He came to the decision his working life wasn’t probably going to be as long as he had possibly hoped, but around the same time he and Penny also had the opportunity of the tenancy of a farm at Ampleforth. ‘I thought if we are going to ex- pand we are going to have the best stock we can possibly have. I want to hit the top, experience life at the top. Over a period we bought sev- en heifers and cows and two bulls. They weren’t cheap. I decided the herd we would grow would be our pension and for all my ailments I thrive on stress.’ ‘The most expensive cows have been the best and have also turned out to be the cheapest. The first we bought was 11,000 guineas and came with a bull calf that I sold to Cogent and got my money back in one go. Since then she has bred us heifers and it was her granddaughter that won at Pateley.’ ‘Our herd since the sale where we sold around 10 cows now runs to 30 cows and about 80 head overall. All our bull calves go as bulls for breeding and nearly all our heifers go abroad to Germany, France, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. We sold over 20 abroad in 2018. I’ve been chair- man of our local Aberdeen Angus club and was on the society’s technical committee. I’ve visited Australia, Hungary, France and the USA through my involvement with the breed and met some fantastic people.’ ‘What would I do without them? And without Penny?’ I really don’t know, but what I do know is that feeling at Nidderdale Show last year was amazing!’