Farmer's fine balancing act to prepare for Emley Show

Richard Hampshire has a much more onerous responsibility as showfield manager of Emley Show, which celebrates its 100th appearance next Saturday. The show takes place across half of the 120-acre tenanted Factory Farm where he has sheep, cattle and horses on Emley Moor that is mostly noted for the TV mast next to the farm.

“I didn’t go out to get the show to come here,” says Richard.

“We hosted it for the first time in 2009 and when I was first approached I initially said no quite emphatically, but now that it is here I wouldn’t want it to go anywhere else. It has become part of our life.

“Where it had been before coming up the hill was at Lowfields. The show society had been very unfortunate in having to cancel three times in five years – twice to flooding, once having to cancel on the morning of the show, and in 2001 to foot and mouth disease restrictions. Financially another wet year couldn’t be risked where it was. When I finally agreed I said that I could guarantee it would never be off for flooding, but whether you get blown off the hillside is another thing completely!”

Hosting while also maintaining his farming operation is a challenge. The show attracts 15,000 and the date clashes with when his lambs are ready for going to market. Richard’s showfield and farm preparation starts in earnest three weeks before the big day and with at least another week worth of tidying up afterwards and getting things back to normal he has a fine balancing act to conjure with each year.

“Until you’re involved you don’t take into account the other elements like car parking facilities, points of access, toilets in the right places and how the show impacts on everything else that you need to do on the farm.

“We have 40 suckler cows and their calves, using a Limousin bull on predominantly Aberdeen Angus X cow and 160 Cheviot X Texel breeding ewes with near enough 300 lambs on the ground. We’ve been trying to get the sheep clipped this week (July 21) and ideally I’d like to get at least 20 lambs if not two batches of 20 off to our local livestock market at Holmfirth. I’m very loyal to it and they do a great job. It would be even better if my mate Charles Haigh is there to buy for his farm shop. The lamb price is going quite well at the moment and if we can get into the £90 bracket without using any corn it’s happy days.

“Last year I made the decision to get them all showered so that they weren’t having a problem with fly strike, but that meant I couldn’t market them for 75 days.

“It’s all down to how we jiggle things about. The reason I was reticent about having the show here at first was my perception that we didn’t have enough room, but we’ve changed it from what was a circular to a linear showground. We have to shift everything around to accommodate it and I get torn between prioritising the show and the farm. We’ve not marketed a lamb yet. Cash flow will dictate pretty soon and the clock is ticking for both marketing them and the show.”

Managing grass is important to any farm but getting it right for show day is another art.

“This year rather than mowing I’ve tried grazing all the showground and car parks. Where the cattle have been will take a bit of work in this next week but it has not given me the same pressure as having to take off a hay crop. The proof of whether it has worked will be on show day but let’s just say that at the moment you wouldn’t want to be coming with open toed sandals. It will be fine next Saturday I’m sure.”

Richard is envious of shows such as Driffield that he visited recently and clearly has ambitions for Emley Show.

“Having a permanent showground would make a massive difference and we don’t have a single agricultural machinery trade stand, which is very disappointing and quite embarrassing really.

“I want Emley Show to get right back to its agricultural roots. We’ve pushed on with the cattle classes since it has been here and we’ve brought back the sheep classes that had been missing at Lowfields. We haven’t got pigs yet but we would love those in the future. We also offer sponsorship and further education grants for young people wanting to pursue careers in farming and the countryside. We have a grandstand this year and we’re looking forward to the Grand Parade.”

Emley Show takes place on Saturday.