The Farmers Mart Oct-Nov 2019 - Issue 65 | Page 27

COLDWELL FARM 27
• OCT/NOV 2019
‘ This past winter I
started feeding fodder
beet a lot sooner than
normal and the result
was we had some
lambs at 16lbs that
took some getting
out. The ewes milked
better for being on the
fodder beet longer
’
here unless the grass is growing. I’ve
started reseeding and it has made a heck
of a difference with the grass growing a lot
better.’
‘We get rid of anything that is not up to
scratch as store or fat lambs at Holmfirth
livestock market. I look to sell somewhere
between 8-10 Grits and Lonk tups each
year at the breed sales that are both
held in Clitheroe; and also Whitefaced
Woodland tups at Holmfirth’s breed sale.’
‘Our first show in the summer season is
at Harden Moss. It’s then Great Yorkshire,
Halifax and Hope with the Lonk breed
show at Holme in Cliviger. That’s the one
you want to win as it’s where all the top
boys show.’
CHe also took reserve in the Lonk
classes. At Halifax Show he had both
champions in Grits and Lonk classes and
reserve interbreed.
Clive’s dad George was more of a sheep-
dog man.
Michael Hoyle
& Co. Ltd - Clitheroe
AGRICULTURAL MERCHANTS
01200 425 422
‘Everyone at Michael Hoyle & Co.
are pleased to be associated with
Clive Mitchell of Coldwell Farm.’
CLITHEROE AUCTION MART
Clitheroe, BB7 1QD
‘It’s all he had in his head. If there was
a sheepdog trial it didn’t matter what was
happening elsewhere, he was off to Wales,
Scotland, the north of England. He was on
the BBC series One an & His Dog. I keep a
dog to keep my sheep in, father would keep
sheep to train his dogs.’
Until his heart attack Clive had also kept
Charolais cattle.
‘We had ten cows. It was a pedigree herd,
but my son Joe said I should get rid of them
and so they’ve gone.’
Clive married for the second time 27
years ago. He’s married to Susan. They
have two children – Joe and daughter
Jamie – and two grandchildren – William
and Olivia.
‘William is 11 and he’s farming mad. He has
his own Herdwick sheep.’
Clive is also renowned for his singing
and auctioneering prowess at the Pennine
Foxhounds gatherings, weddings and
harvest festivals, but it is his sheep under
the Coldwell prefix that take centre stage
most of the time.
He recalls some entertaining moments
from show days over the years and travel-
ling with his sheep.
‘This year’s Great Yorkshire Show results
were one of the tops for me but I remem-
ber winning with a Gritstone years ago
and my mate Ewan Brown, now sadly no
longer with us, who used to like celebrating.
The night we won he took the tup out on a
halter around the showground leading him
about like an old dog. He came back about
three hours alter as drunk as a monkey
with the tup walking behind him, but
without its halter on. It had followed him
everywhere.’
‘I had an old Land Rover with a canvas
roof and when I went to any shows all the
sheep would normally ride in the trailer,
but I used to let down the back of the Land
Rover and the same tup would stand in
there with his head over my shoulder.’