The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2020 - Issue 66 | Page 40

40 BARSTOW HALL FARM
DEC/JAN 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
It really is all about bloodlines for
Steven, his pure Texels and Suffolks
Chris Berry talks with sheep showman Steven Kirby.
SETTING standards, maintaining them
and then seeking to improve is a hall-
mark of any business and for Steven
Kirby of Barstow Hall Farm at Ainderby
Steeple near Northallerton that’s exactly
been his mantra with his flock of 400
commercial ewes and his pure Texels
and Suffolks.
Steven has also recently received his
most prestigious award yet – overall
champion flock in the Northern Area
Texel Sheep Breeders Club 2019.
‘I never thought I would ever achieve
it when I’m up against some of the top
flocks in the area.’
‘I’m breeding the pures for quality
tups and ewes. I want a consistent lamb
coming out of them and now I’m confi-
dent that what I sell to other people is
the same standard I would keep and use
myself. That’s got me a lot of customers
coming back year after year. I’ll not sell
anything to anyone that I wouldn’t be
happy to use myself.’
Steven currently has around 25 pure
Texel breeding ewes and 10 pure Suffolks.
In the past decade, since he started
showing his Texels at Osmotherley Show
when he was 14, he has become one of
the main breeders to beat at shows all
around North Yorkshire.
In 2016 he attended 17 shows and was
never beaten, taking the championships
in the Texel classes in every one. Steven
is also now on the Northern Area Texel
Sheep Society committee.
‘My biggest achievement so far was
taking the interbreed title at Ryedale
Show where there were 1100 sheep on
the showfield. But what was also impor-
tant to me was that I won with all sorts
of different sheep that year, five in all. I
wasn’t just relying on one animal to win.’
‘In the 2019 season I had show champi-
ons with 5 different Texels and 3 different
Suffolks, to me it means more than just
having one outstanding sheep – and most
of them homebred too. At Wensleydale
Show I had two champions out of the
final 4 in the interbreed with champion
Texel and Suffolk. At North Yorkshire
County Show I had breed champion and
interbreed with a Texel. I attend around
20 shows every year.’
Masham Sheep Fair is another favour-
ite. Steven attended his first when he was
15.
‘I’ve never missed a year since. I’ve not
yet managed the interbreed title for an
individual sheep but I’ve twice managed
the interbreed group of three. It’s a more
difficult time of year because the tups
have already gone in with the ewes by
then for February lambing, but we’ve
normally done quite well.’
‘I started with pure Suffolks after all my
success with the Texels in 2016. I wanted
another challenge, another breed. That’s
when I also went into having a few more
Suffolk X commercial ewes.’
‘My original reason for going into pure
Texels was more for improving our own
tups for using on our commercials, to
improve our fat lambs to get a premium
price at Northallerton livestock market
where we sell all our fatstock. We average
around 600-650 lambs a year, keeping
around 50 as replacements and selling
the rest at between 44-50 kilos. When
they are ready they have to go. I try to
keep as good sheep as we can so that
when the job’s sticky we can always still
sell on quality.’
‘We normally start selling the com-
mercials and the pure lambs that are not
worth keeping for breeding or selling to
others, from the end of April right through
to the end of December and beginning
of January as I like to have them all away
before the breeding ewes come in for
lambing and to give the grass a rest and
allow for regrowth.’
‘The commercials start lambing
in February and run right through to
mid-April. They are mostly Texel X with
a handful of Suffolk X. Our farm used to
be a mixed farm up until foot and mouth
disease year with sheep, cattle and
arable crops across its 70 acres. We are
now all sheep and when I left school I
rented another 30 acres so that we could
increase numbers.’
Steven lives on the farm, his mum
and dad Jane and Andrew live in
Northallerton.
‘It’s a struggle to make everything work
so dad does a fair bit of work away from
home contract shearing and relief farm
work while I’m here doing the day-to-day
work with the sheep.’
Steven is a big supporter of Borrowby
Show.
‘It’s where my granddad originally
farmed before coming here to Ainderby
Steeple. I normally take a trailer full to
most shows but Borrowby was struggling
for entries when a few who used to take
20-30 each all packed up around the
same time. I’ll take most now and when
they were really struggling a year or two
ago I took 50. A few more are now taking
20 but I will still take more like 30-40. Last
year they had more sheep entries than
they’ve had for years.’
‘As a family we donated trophies in
2019. They only used to have three sheep
trophies. We’ve added trophies for