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!’