Driffield Show: The 14-year-old cattle showman hoping to win big at England’s largest one day show

“He wouldn’t take them,” says his mum Emma. “We normally do Eastrington, and the others, before it tends to get tricky because we’re on with harvest, and although he was missing out on showing, Sam just said it was too hot for them.

“He loves his cattle and has a natural skill and eye for livestock. He’s been showing on his own since he was 11 years old and has already amassed a huge number of rosettes, as well as winning a few trophies, including for stockjudging and has just been asked to join a young farmers area team in Skipton later this month.

"He came home with a trophy from Muston YFC just the other night for most points in beef stockjudging.”

Emma says that she and husband Will, and their respective fathers, all love and loved cattle.

“Both Sam’s grandfathers enjoyed cattle. Will does too, and I’ve always been around them.

"It’s definitely a family thing although I’ve never shown and Will only showed for our dairy farming friends Joanne and Andrew Chapman.

“We haven’t pushed Sam to show cattle, he’s just naturally flowed into it and he’s had some really great training from well respected cattle showman Andrew Scarborough who has taught him all the tricks of the trade.”

Emma says her son is focused when he’s buying, just as he is when he’s showing.

“Sam goes with myself and Will, up to Middleton in Teesdale and Barnard Castle where Will buys our stock, and Sam buys his own.

"He knows what he’s looking for, he gets them out of their pens and watches how they walk before he buys. He can tell you everything about his beasts.

“Bullocks are what we have here at Rudston Grange, so he sticks with them, which means he usually comes away with reserve champions at shows, as it’s usually heifers that get champion. He got reserve champion commercial at Driffield last year and also champion pair.”

Sam has entered four bullocks for next week, all in different classes. There’s a Limousin-cross, three British Blues, and he’ll have a team in the pairs class.

But Sam Harrison is no one-trick pony. His personality, enthusiasm and drive to get on in life sees him already junior chairman at his young farmers club; he recently organised a 10-mile sponsored walk from Driffield rugby club, where he also plays hooker for the U15 side, to The Old Star in Kilham where the club meet, and he approached and was successful in getting a local MP to go along and support.

“He puts a real effort into everything he takes on,” says proud mum Emma.

“He absolutely loves young farmers and his club, Muston YFC. Last year he received a national award for Best New Member of Year and was the youngest in his award class.

Will and Emma farm across 200 acres and their farming enterprise is made up of wheat and barley crops plus fattening cattle, with the whole business held together by Will’s agricultural contracting business, plus Emma’s work as a locum veterinary nurse and more lately a farm administrator for a couple of farms.

“Rudston Grange has been in Will’s family since 1951,” says Emma.

“His granddad Donald moved here from Oswaldkirk, near Malton. He came because he wanted somewhere bigger, in the days when 200 acres was a big farm. Will started the agricultural contracting because the farm isn’t now big enough on its own.

“We couldn’t contract without the farm, because we use the gear that we use on the farm; and we couldn’t farm without the contracting, they run side by side.”

Will now works for around fifteen farmers within about a 25-mile radius, mainly silaging, spraying, combining and baling.

It’s all very much an indication of how farming has moved on and how the Harrisons have kept things going.

“Will worked for a now retired agricultural contractor Dave Woodcock in Burton Fleming for a while when his dad Doug and his uncle Ken farmed together.

"It used to be very much a mixed farm, beef, sheep, corn, very traditional. When Ken passed away Will came back to work with his father and in 2004 Will and his dad became partners.

"Doug passed away in 2011 when Sam was nine months old.

“It's since then that Will has become more of a contractor, as farming has changed massively, meaning we need more of an income than what 200 acres can give.

“We are now just arable and beef farmers. We have winter wheat variety Skyfall this year across 135 acres and near 65 acres of feed and malting barley with a small amount of grass for silage.

"We are on the top of the Wolds and our land is very good, forgiving Grade 2 land up here, classed as medium soil. It’s fast draining, good chalky soil.

“We’ve gone all winter barley this time, because we had such a disaster with spring barley in last year’s wet year trying to get drilled that it put us off. Ironically, this year it would have been absolutely fine.

"We are growing a relatively new malting barley variety Vessel, and Cassia feed barley. We saw Vessel at Mortimer’s crop trials three years ago and we grew it up at my dad’s. So, we got some seed off him.

“To be fair, we were in a luckier position than many last year because of being at the top of the Wolds, and we got everything in and drilled, but when we were going down to Holderness to a young farmers event it was desperate.

“Crops do look well at the moment. We’ll be a bit short on straw but apart from that we should be okay.”

Emma says the move into cattle at Rudston Grange is fairly recent although they had a few of Sam’s at the farm before they went into it as another strand of the farm business.

“My dad was a big cattle man although he didn’t show them. He passed away two years ago. Will used to work for him, that’s where he got his cattle-fix.

“At the moment we have about 35 head. Ideally, we’d like to be up to 50. When cattle became extremely expensive about nine months ago it knocked us back a little.

“Will really likes buying from Middleton in Teesdale and Barnard Castle.

"We buy stock at 8-10 months and take everything to finishing at 18-24 months, selling at Malton livestock market with stock mainly going to Morrison’s and some local butchers.”