Kirby Misperton farming family keen for Great Yorkshire Show success

“Everything’s Shamrock,” says Cyril. “The farm, the sheds, the caravan and motorhome club and shepherd’s huts, thankfully, they’re all doing okay, but I wouldn’t miss the Great Yorkshire Show for anything.

“I came over here to build poultry sheds in 1986. I’m from Kircubbin, Co Down, Northern Ireland, where my brothers still run the family farm rearing sheep and fattening cattle.

“I had pedigree and commercial Charollais and showed at shows like Balmoral, Ballymena and Co Antrim, but I sold my flock before I came across. I always wanted to get back into the breed and started with pedigree Charollais in Kirby Misperton in 2001. I love the showing side for the people you meet who become great friends and because I always want to produce the best I can.

Cyril says his best showing year was in 2013 when he had a great Charollais team that was really on fire.

“We’d bred a tup called Shamrock Northern Star and had a fantastic breeding ewe, Shamrock Champagne and a daughter off her, Juicy Lucy, was first place in her class at the Great Yorkshire. She won all the shows around here, taking interbreed titles at Malton, North Yorkshire, Thornton le Dale, Egton and Masham, where she also took Yorkshire Champion of Champions, and reserve interbreed at Ryedale.

“We’ll be taking half a dozen to Harrogate on Monday, ready for the show to get underway on Tuesday. We have a good tup lamb, which I think is as good a lamb as Northern Star, and we have a nice gimmer shearling, in fact, two are going, of which I have my favourite, but the girls have theirs. I like that.

Cyril has always been passionate about the Charollais, right from his childhood.

“What I really like about the Charollais is its fast growth. I particularly look for it to be good in its legs and mouth, and to have a good, tight skin, and you can tell how much the commercial sheep farmer likes the Charollais because 90 per cent of our lambs go into commercial flocks. I have the same customers come back year after year. It is noticeable that a lot of commercial sheep men and women now come to buy ewes to put on the Beltex to produce a butcher’s lamb.

Cyril says he’s shifted his emphasis in recent times to keeping a younger flock.

“While we sell lambs as we always do, we’ve also moved to selling five-crop ewes that have a track record of great production and prolificacy, which keeps our flock young and vibrant. It works well for us.

One of Cyril’s main sources of pride is in the relationship he has with his daughters and how they work as a trio.

“Sometimes it puts a tear to my eye when we’re all there in the ring together, and we all love the showing. We’ve four tup lambs vying to go to the show. We washed them yesterday, and I’ve got my eye on one, but the other three are all very close. Two lambs out of the four belong to the girls and are both out of the same bloodline. I said to the girls, we’ll have a bit of fun choosing here. I have a lot of enjoyment in what the three of us have done.

Molly, who is presently studying law at Northumbria University, says it is always fun and that she certainly isn’t going to move away from the country life no matter where her law degree might take her, and if she’s ever in a courtroom it will never replicate the fun of making decisions on stock.

“I still like to have my time here at home. I love country life and can’t live in the city. We recently held a practice stock judging at our local young farmers club. Dad and I got asked to pick out the placings while someone else was judging, and although we had the first two, we had them the other way round. Picking our team for the shows always brings about debate.

Cyril and the girls’ Charollais flock currently runs to 37 breeding ewes, but there has also been a new breed added since last year’s Great Yorkshire Show, which may well see its Harrogate debut next year.

“We now have seven Badger Face Texel ewes,” says Cyril. “And we currently have, with lambs, around 90 in the flock overall. I like the Badgers and wanted to buy some seven years ago, but the girls said to just stick with the Charollais. What happened was a good friend, John Harding from Bristol, who shows at Harrogate, asked the girls to show the sheep. After that, both girls came back to me and said we have to get these.

“They’re something different, very different to the Charollais,” says Molly. “Firstly, their markings, but they are also a very good breed. The carcass and the way the muscle is on them. They’ve got definition to them.

Cyril agrees: “I liked the carcass on them,” says Cyril. “I want to try them on the Charollais because I think for the commercial sheep, there’s a lot of future for them as butchers are going for this type of lamb with double muscle to it. You look at them and see the Beltex in them.

Back home, Cyril says the move to a caravan site and shepherd’s huts has been one of the best he’s ever made.

“You meet a lot of lovely people running a small caravan site like ours and having the shepherd’s huts. Everyone falls in love with the sheep; they look after the pet lambs,” he says. “Two years ago, I decided to go into the holiday accommodation business. I built our first shepherd’s hut last year and finished the second at the end of May. One has a hot tub. I’m looking at having four huts in all.

“There are electric hook-ups for all the caravans and motorhomes, and we’re putting in a shower block this year. The shepherd’s huts all have toilets and showers.

“We’re next to Flamingoland, which puts us in an ideal position and close to Pickering and the North York Moors, leading to the coast. The shepherd’s huts are available all year round, while the caravan site is open from March to October.”