The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 67

LINGHAMS 67 • FEB/MAR 2020 and conformation and he really set us on our way with our Brampton herd. We next added Tattenhall Impeccable and one of the breed’s best ever cows, a second calver Parishes Josephine. She produced outstanding progeny, never had her feet touched, milked throughout on every quarter and still had a full set of teeth at the end. She also bore Brampton Tenpin, a Royal Show champion and another leading sire.’ Linghams and Brampton Hall are the homes of today’s 90-strong Charolais suckler herd that local man Michael Dumbreck took over the running of after Billy’s daughter Sarah gave over in 2013. ‘Michael has progressed,’ says Sarah. ’He won the Charolais Young Breeders award last year and has been over to judge in Canada and has been asked to judge at Welshpool this year. He’s now getting on to the Charolais judging panel.’ ‘You’ve got to be fit to be around cattle. I still show them with him. Last year we had champion at the North Yorkshire County Show and were fourth in the Interbreed with a young bull Brampton Omar that had been born April 2018. He went on to the Great Yorkshire where he got reserve breed champion.’ ‘We are still breeding good quality stock,’ says Michael. ‘We’re now using bulls alongside selected AI that we use with the first group so that we don’t lose any time calving. We currently have three stock bulls. Our bulls are excellent value and we are on the up again in a big way. I’m looking forward to what 2020 will bring. We sell bulls mainly, at Welshpool, Carlisle and Stirling each twice a year and from the farm.’ ‘The first time I went to Scotland for the Stirling sale was with Brampton Nutella. He’d won at the Great Yorkshire Show and went on to win his class at Stirling and sold to Mr O’Rourke of Newry in Co. Down for 10,000 guineas. We used him quite a lot on our herd and he proved great for easy calving.’ ‘We sell stock to other pedigree buyers and commercial buyers. They want easy fleshing, good conformation and easy calving. The Charolais certainly put flesh on quickly, which has always been one of their main advantages, as well as great conformation. Their calves get up well and just keep growing.’ Michael also has a few Salers cattle and sees the potential of the Salers cow and the Charolais bull. ‘They call the cross ‘the golden calf’ as it combines the easy calving of the Salers Wishing Billy Turner & Sarah & Michael Dunbreck continued success. One of the largest John Deere and agricultural machinery dealers in the North of England, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Darrington 01977 795241 Leyburn 01969 621369 Keighley 01535 632661 Ottringham 01964 622351 Ripon 01765 692255 Tadcaster 01937 835454 Stockton 01740 630254 Brigg 01652 650600 cows with their wide pelvises with the fast growth of the Charolais.’ The popularity not being quite what it once was of the Charolais has been well documented and Billy, Sarah and Michael are well aware of what happened and how things have turned back around in more recent years. ‘They got too big,’ says Sarah. ‘But now things have swung around and Charolais bulls are providing easier calving stock. Other breeds have grown in numbers but the Charolais is still there. One thing we have noticed though is the reduced number at shows.’ ‘It’s no good going if you haven’t the competition to stand against,’ says Billy. ‘Everybody used to show Charolais in Yorkshire. What I think will bring Charolais back even more is if there is a move towards more grazing cattle in the UK. In Southern Ireland 80 per cent of the breeding stock is still Charolais.’ Billy and Sarah’s farming operation runs to around 800 acres of which 250 acres are down to arable crops of wheat, barley and oilseed rape, which is let on a stub- ble-to-stubble contract. There is also a flock of 700 Suffolk X Mule breeding ewes that are put to the Texel. Another local man Anthony Howe is the sheep man on the farm. HISTORY Billy moved to Village Farm in Skelton on Ure in 1961 after marrying Jane in 1960. Billy’s father George, who Billy describes as an ‘excellent livestock man’ gave Billy a milk cow, when he moved, that gave enough milk for the house and three men, as well as giving enough milk for Jane to rear 28 calves on it that summer. Billy originally went in for fattening cattle – mainly Angus, Hereford and Dutch Friesians – before concentrat- ing on Charolais. Jane, who passed away after suffering a brain tumour for many years, used to breed thorough- breds. Sarah now does the same and has Brampton Billy that hasn’t run as yet. ‘Mum loved the breeding and the racing,’ says Sarah. ‘She did very well, including winning the Gimcrack at York with Sollen Gold.’ Established in 1972, Jacksons Motor Engineers are a trusted and well respected local family business in Ripon. Wishing Billy Turner of Linghams continued success for the future. We have a small team of highly trained engineers, specialising in agricultural machinery. Whether you need a new tractor, or need your existing one repairing, we can help. A personal and friendly service, with flexible working hours available 7 days a week. Louth Market Weighton 01507 617588 01430 872421 Malton 01653 695094 Retford 01777 704823 Tel: [phone] | E: [email protected] Billsdale, Dallamires Lane, Ripon, HG4 1TT