WHEN Robert Lambert gave up dairy farming at Mile House Farm in Conistonewith-Kilnsey after the horrendous winter of 2011-12 he thought he would miss his cows . He ’ d started milking them alongside his dad in 1967 , but 40-plus years was clearly enough .

‘ I ’ ve had chance to live and breathe since ,’ says Robert , who started up a suckler herd , putting dairy cows to a Limousin bull for several years , before ‘ putting the brakes ’ on in more recent times .

‘ They always gave plenty of milk and I ran a decent sized herd for a while , but now I ’ m down to just 20 that are all nearly pure Limousins . Dairy cows had always been my passion , but that really bad winter saw me off . It was at the time when the milk price was crap and I was also short-staffed . I ’ d found I was finishing milking but then only getting cleaned up by 2am and having to be up again at 6am . It was far too much for me and I ’ d had enough .’

‘ This had never been a dairy farm prior to when we first came from Bainbridge

when I was 6 years old in 1957 . My dad James started with 30 British Friesians , hardy for these hills , and in 1975-76 we had made the decision to go bigger , upping our numbers to 65 cows , with a new milking parlour , new silos and a bigger cow shed . You think of those numbers today and that ’ s now a very small dairy farm .’

‘ We were more about natural bulling than AI and a lot of the bulls we produced were destined for the Barkers ’ excellent Ryebeck herd in Northallerton . We reared a lot of heifers , selling our surplus stock at Skipton in the days when there was a good market for replacements in the dairy herds . We had a good reputation for dairy stock .’

Today Robert ’ s farming enterprise is more concentrated towards sheep with 600 Swaledale ewes and 100 crossbreds , but with a twist in recent times towards putting the Texel tup direct to his Swaledales and creating the Texdale .

‘ When I was working alongside dad , we would have between 1300-1500 Swaledale ewes , having started here with a hefted flock of 500 . We had moved to a combination of Swaledales and Mules . There ’ s nothing wrong with the Mule , it ’ s just that the Texdales do just as well on these fells and they attract a better price . I now keep Texdale gimmers and have around 150 Texdale ewes .’

‘ I now put enough Swaledale ewes back to the Swaledale tup to maintain my pures and use either the Texel or the Suffolk tup as a cross , which makes a better return on the lambs , with the cull ewes then going either as stores or fat .’

‘ The Texdales are a lot less work than the Mules and with the live market performing above expectations since lockdown earlier in the year and the current restrictions it has been a good year for the lamb trade . The Covid-19 restrictions and the weather being glorious during spring set us on the right

road . Good weather always leads to more barbecues and that helps with lamb sales . We were all expecting a tough time with the impending Brexit negotiations , especially with a huge proportion of lamb in the UK going for export in Europe , but prices have held up well so far , probably more because of the state of the pound versus the Euro .’

This year ’ s lambing was the first that Robert could remember never having a wet day .

‘ Although I had a farmer friend in Northumberland who says they had more than their fair share , so we were lucky in Yorkshire . It was certainly very droughty on our hills , which was no bad thing at the time .’

Robert has a young farmer Ben Rushmer who started coming to the farm when he was 12 years old and now works alongside him .

‘ Ben would watch me milk the cows when he was younger and he ’ s building up his own farming business with a bit

of land , his own flock and working as an agricultural contractor . He also helps with my grass . We take one cut with half going into the clamp and half into big bales .’

Robert was chairman of Kilnsey Show from 2003-2018 having started on car park duty when he was 17 in 1968 . His farm is next to the showground .

‘ I became a steward in 1970 and took over from the late Ronnie Metcalfe as show chairman in 2002 in all but the title . I was really chuffed when I was presented with a carriage clock and life membership of Upper Wharfedale Agricultural Society for my years as chairman . The show has so many wonderful people who all play their part , including my wife Kathy who had been involved nearly as long as me .’

‘ I was meant to be president at this year ’ s show , but as we weren ’ t able to hold our annual meeting in May I ’ m still only President-elect . Hopefully I will receive notice that I am president in time for next year ’ s show !’