HORSE, sheep and cattle bred in Teesdale have scooped major awards at England’s premier agricultural show.
Highland and beef shorthorn cattle, Swaledale and Zwartbles sheep, as well as dales ponies, featured strongly at the Great Yorkshire Show (GYS) this year.
For Simon and Emma Haley, of Seamfold Highlands, in Eggleston, the show was one of three national events where they achieved outstanding success with their young bull, Murphy of Seam.
Last month at the Royal Highland Show the animal won its class before becoming junior bull champion and then overall junior champion.
They also had success with Sophie of Seam and Milis of Seam, which came fourth and second in their classes respectively.
The success continued at Harrogate where Murphy of Seam was again recognised as junior champion before going on to be overall male champion and then being awarded overall reserve breed champion. Murphy of Seam, along with Milis of Seam, came second in the pairs class.
Other Highland cattle from the Eggleston breeders to perform well in their classes were Sineag Dubh of Seam, which came first, Milis of Seam, which came fifth, and Fionnghal of Culloden, which came third.
The farming couple had no rest after GYS and headed directly to Royal Welsh Show last week where Murphy again took the junior male title before going on to be named reserve breed champion. It went on to be named reserve junior bull native interbreed.
Mr Haley said: “What a way to finish the Royal Welsh. Well done Murphy.”
Sophie of Seam was judged reserve female champion and Meg of Seam took first in its class. Fifi of Seam came fifth.
Joanne Souter, also from Eggleston, did well in GYS’ shighly competitive beef shorthorn classes, achieving fifth for her heifer born in 2021 and sixth for her female in calf.
It was a great day for upper Teesdale shepherd Tom Hutchinson who took first and second prizes in the Swaledale ewe class before producing the female champion which went on to be overall breed champion.
Elsewhere in the North of England mule breed section Barnard Castle farmer David Buck took top honours in the ewe with twin lambs class.
Zwartbles breeders Peter and Susan Addison, from Eggleston, were over the moon when ram lamb Hayberries Kane, was judged male champion before going on to be reserve breed champion.
Their ewe lamb, Hayberries Kloud 9, won its class before being judged reserve female champion.
Hayberries Jor-el came fourth in the shearling ram section. Mr Addison will be taking Hayberries Kane to Carlisle next month for the Zwartbles Sheep Association’s Premier Sale.
Mr Addison said: “He will be sold into a flock and become a stock tup. That is why we took him to Yorkshire to get a ticket under his belt. He is just good all round – he has a good carcass on him and a leg in each corner. He has good marking for the breed.
“We have had a bit of interest and hopefully [the awards] creates a shopwindow.”
It was another excellent outing in the GYS equine classes for Lartington dales pony breeder David Eccles and his daughter Emma.
Their five-year-old mare Westwick Lady Rose came first in the senior mare class against 18 competitors and went on to be judged overall breed champion.
The pony was shown by Miss Eccles, who had previous success at the show in 2021 when Westwick Poly was judged champion.
Judge Peter Boustead said of Westwick Lady Rose: “The pony had tremendous action front and behind; lovely flat bone and joints; not too fat but in good condition; very much a pony type; what a dales pony should be.”
Westwick Daisy was placed third in the brood mare section against a strong class of ponies and her colt foal took the top spot in the foal class.
