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“ At the end of the day the Charollais is a terminal sire breed and as well as having that class the males and females produced have to be able to do their job and that is to rear further quality lambs .
James ’ market place for Charollais pedigree stock is mostly females at present .
“ We sell more females to other pedigree breeders either privately or through society sales , but there is a good commercial market for them also .
Lambing is all completed for this year .
“ We lamb in two stints . The top ewes and all recips with embryo lambs lamb in mid-December from which I form my new show team for 2022 . Everything else is lambed in February .
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“ I have everything in for lambing and like them out at about 4 weeks old dependent on weather conditions and the ground being reasonably hard . They need the fresh air and exercise .
“ During winter I give the pre-lambers grass , cake and a bucket . When they are inside it is cake , bucket and good haylage . All replacements and tups are just grass fed over winter .
James started showing dairy cows before the sheep . He showed his first calf in 2007 . He would like to show his Charollais and dairy cows but sometimes it just doesn ’ t quite fit in .
“ We will only show if we have them at 12 o ’ clock shape . Just getting to shows whether with sheep or the cows , let alone
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‘ The top ewes and all recipswith embryo lambs lamb in mid-December from which I form my new show team for 2022 ’ both , can prove hard because there is always something to be done on the farm .
“ We all muck in together wherever needed but it is largely me and dad doing the dairy job ; me doing the sheep and Ben on the arable .
“ Our dairy cows are split between 100 Holsteins and 70
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Ayrshires with our milk going to Charlie Payne ; our black and white bull calves out of a Limousin sire go to ABP York at 16 months .
“ Our arable side is made up of 250 acres split between winter wheat , barley , oilseed rape , fodder beet and maize . The barley , maize and fodder beet goes into feed for the fattening cattle .
There ’ s one other member of the on-farm team too , Richard ’ s mum Shirley who always provides support .
James looks forward to the show season .
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“ Like anybody , we can all have bad days at home . It ’ s lots of hard work , blood , sweat and tears and sometimes days can be disastrous like the one morning last December when we lost two ewe lambs . But you ’ ve just to grin and bear it . I find the showing side makes up for it . It certainly did last year .
“ You ’ ve just got to do your best as nobody knows what is around the corner . I ’ m hoping I will be at Otley and the Great Yorkshire Show again this year , along with others . I would also really love to win at the Royal Welsh , which is one of the biggest for Charollais .
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