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“ Having said that we do pride ourselves on putting forward stock that we have had born , have reared and fattened here for shows at Bakewell and Holmfirth . We ’ ve done quite well over the years and had Christmas Primestock Reserve Champion last December with a 24 month old heifer .
Andrew has an ultra-small herd that isn ’ t part of the overall enterprise . Well , not just yet .
“ My wife bought me two Belted Galloway heifers for my birthday the previous winter that both now have a calf each . My fatherin-law is the farm manager for them .
The sheep operation at Daisy Hill runs to 1200 breeding ewes with around 750 , mainly Swaledales , up on the moors . There are around 50 Whitefaced Woodlands among them and some Swaledale crossed
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Ryan and andrew with the 30 + year old combine harvester |
to the Lonk . 150 draft ewes are brought off the hill and down to Daisy Hill when the ewes are around 4-5 years old and are put to the Bluefaced Leicester tup . Around 350 Texel and Mule ewes make up the rest .
“ All our Swaledale ewe lambs are retained for the moor . We sell all our Swaledale wethers and everything that is not being retained for replacements is going fat at Holmfirth livestock market . We also don ’ t rush the lambs away . Ours always seem to get stronger into a new year .
“ We cross our Mule ewes with a good big Texel tup to give us a good first-cross Texel ewe , then we will cross their ewe lamb with another Texel tup to get the three-quarter bred Texel . From there we use a good meat tup , more often than not with some Beltex or Charollais in it that we buy from Skipton . We like to buy the purebreds and pure crosses to get that last good conformation on our end product .
“ Holmfirth is a great market for us . It is only a handful of miles away and it can now deal with all the lambs we are producing .
“ We like a good lump of money for our fat cattle and sheep and we are certainly getting that just at the moment .
Buying tups is on the same basis , Andrew says , as they buy bulls .
“ We go to the right markets to buy quality . We go to St John ’ s Chapel for Swaledale tups and Bakewell or Skipton for our Bluefaced Leicesters .
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Ryan & Matthew shearing
The Whitefaced Woodlands are kept by way of keeping the Penistone sheep going .
“ When we took the rights to sheep on Ladycross Moor from renowned breeder Jack Bridge we let the numbers go down a bit , but we ’ ve kept it going and built numbers back to 50 ewes , sufficient for one tup .
Andrew says that Ryan , his son , is the hill specialist .
“ Ryan loves being on the moors shepherding , working his sheepdogs and drystone walling . He and Matthew get on well , which is great , and we all muck in together whenever we have to . He and Matthew are both good shearing lads too . They ’ ve both got their specialist interests . Matthew ’ s is such as machinery sales and Ryan ’ s is tup sales .
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Ryan ’ s dog flo , herding the swale ewes on ladycross moor
Another additional enterprise on the farm has been Daisy Hill Cottages providing holiday accommodation .
“ We had a small dairy herd , bottled our own milk and mum had her own milkround . We refurbished what were the dairy buildings and built three self-catering cottages . Sally and Sue look after them .
Andrew and Chris were both Tug O ’ War champions not just with Penistone YFC when they were younger but also as England internationals . They were both World Champions for 12 consecutive years . Andrew has even coached a team in South Africa .
It ’ s another example of how the Howe family has always pulled together !
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