Best fat stock show in my 24 years (From Gazette & Herald)

Best fat stock show in my 24 years

12:24pm Wednesday 7th December 2011 in Farming comment By James Stephenson

TUESDAY was Christmas Fat Stock Show day at Malton and proved to be the best I have seen in my 24- year stay in the town.

Forward 98 cattle including 15 bulls and 21 OTMs, 1,241 sheep including 277 ewes.

There were more than 40 show cattle from Ryedale and the quality was quite outstanding; and would have outshone many Smithfield Shows of old. The strength and depth was remarkable and all credit to the judge, Anthony Swales, master butcher of York, who took his time to reach a verdict.

In the end and in front of a large crowd, Anthony gave the supreme championship Major Cooper trophy and the W A Cundall Perpetual Challenge Cup to George and Nick Marwood of Harome.

It was a fitting tribute to this father-and-son partnership which had eight cattle on parade and support the market on a regular basis.

The champion was a Belgian Blue lightweight steer of quite spectacular conformation which weighed 535kg and went on to make 370/kg before being bought by the judge backing his own judgement.

The reserve supreme champion and the winner of the Frank Beal cup for the best home-bred heifer went to Jeremy Waind. His heifer weighed 635kg and made 265p per kilo going to Adrian Radford of Sleights.

Graham Nutt took the Dennis Goodwill trophy for the champion butchers heifer and she also made 265p per kilo being bought by Andrew Radford.

The champion butchers bull was bred by Tim Nichols and he took the RFH Stephenson memorial trophy – Peter Pearson of Bradford bought the champion at 231p per kilo.

I know we, quite rightly, praise those that won but this year’s show was about the strength of the market.

Not only were there a lot of wonderful cattle on display, but also the farming fraternity turned out in force to applaud. We are grateful to Lloyds TSB and Chris Redfearn for backing the show and for Ryedale District Council’s chief executive Janet Waggott for her attendance.

The sheep section of the market was no less supported and this year’s championship went to Peter Turnbull of Pickering for his lightweight pen of lambs weighing 42kg making £112 to Andrew Radford Sleights.

The reserve was Paul Cass of Scalby with the medium class winners weighing 44kg to Andrew Radford Sleights £112 and the heavyweight class and winner of the Scarborough Butchers Association Trophy was won by David Green of Pickering making 49kg £114 to Andrew Radford Sleights.

The judge was Anthony Glaves of Brompton. The following details give owner, breed, weight, price and buyer: Best Butchers bull to 555kg - CD, TD Nichols, Belgian Blue, 515, 219.5, R Agar.

Best Butchers bull over 550kg - CD, TD Nichols, Belgian Blue, 615, 230.5, P Pearson. Best Butchers bullock to 550kg - GI Marwood, Belgian Blue, 545, 369.5, A Swales. Best Butchers bullock 555kg and over - J Waind, Belgian Blue, 635, 264, A Radford. Best Butchers heifer to 520kg - G I Marwood, Belgian Blue, 450, 304.5, A Swales. Best Butchers heifer over 525kg - G Nutt, Belgian Blue, 590, 264.5, A Radford.

Best Homebred Beast in Show - J Waind, Belgian Blue, 635, 264.5, A Radford. Best Cast Cow - BI & B Mosey, Limousin, 795, 179.5, M Douglas.

The following details show owner, price and buyer - Best Pen of Butchers lambs upto 42kg - P Turnbull, 112, A Radford. Best Pen of 5 Butchers Lambs 42.5 to 46kg - P Cass, 112, A Radford. Best Pen of 5 Butchers lambs 46.5kg and over - R Green, 114, A Radford. Best Pen of 5 Ewes - K W Wilson, 134, Cleveland Meats.

Light steers to 234.5p S Pawson, Malton, ave 187.2p; medium steers to 369.5p, J R Marwood, Harome, ave 246.3p; heavy steers to 264.5p, J and R Waind, Brawby, ave 205.1p; medium heifers to 304.5p G I Marwood, Harome, ave 241.3p; heavy heifers to 264.5p, G D Nutt, Thirtleby, ave 221.5p; light bulls to 220p, T D Nichols, Stape, heavy bulls to 230.5p, T D Nichols, Stape, ave 200.7p; OTM steers to 157.5p, A L Bosomworth, Thornton-le-Dale, ave 121.1p; OTM heifers to 195.5p, A L Bosomworth, Thornton-le-Dale. Cows to 179.5p B I & B Mosey, Gilling, ave 150.5p; standard lambs to 195p, D Dowsland, Fadmoor, ave 179.2p; medium lambs to 267p, P Turnbull, Pickering, ave 206.5p; heavy lambs to 233p, D Green, Pickering, ave 197.3p; overweight lambs to 200p, F J Hodsman and Son, Eddlethorpe, ave 188.3p; Ewes to £134, K Wilson, Ryton, ave £80; Rams to £116 ave £80.

Single payment

The window for payment of this year’s SPS claims opened last Thursday with Wales paying 88 per cent of its claimants.

Why is it no surprise that when asked the following day, the English RPA could not provide any figures as to how many farmers have been paid on the first day?

By Monday, however, a statement was made that 80 per cent of English farmers had been sent their money which is a huge improvement on previous years; and for which I suspect we have our farming Minister Jim Paice to thank.

For those farmers who are not likely to receive payment in December, the RPA is starting to write this week with an explanation which is likely to be due to ongoing entitlements correction work from previous years.

This year there is an extra facility to view your entitlement statement online.

Conversions

For the first time that I can remember, a Government Minister has supported the conversion of disused farm buildings to create affordable homes for local people; and wants councils to look favourably on planning applications.

Communities Minister Andrew Stunell highlighted a scheme run by Harrogate Council which requires developers to make provision for some affordable housing in the farm conversion schemes.

This is a major breakthrough in planning policy and this softer approach to providing homes in the countryside must be welcome.