Ryedale Show: The farming couple following in their footsteps of their parents at agricultural show

“My dad, Raymond, who is sadly no longer with us, was show president over a decade ago,” says David.

“My involvement with Ryedale Show started in the late seventies when Wilson Barker was chief cattle steward. It was a rainy day at the beginning of July, and he rang to say ‘can you give me a hand to put these cattle fences up’.

“I ended up stewarding the beef classes until we got married and just after that Christine and I started showing sheep and cattle. When we eventually packed up showing I came back into cattle stewarding again.

Christine says her parents Edwin and Kathleen Vasey were also joint-president.

“They farmed at Sawdon and then moved to Brawby. I was born at Nunnington. I’ve been

involved with Ryedale Show in various guises over the years, including livestock secretary, and took over as general show secretary in 2015 until 2022. I’m still doing administration for tradestands.

Christine says her days as general show secretary were very fulfilling.

“When you’re organising the show there’s such a lot of work beforehand but on the day you turn up at 6 o’clock in the morning, you’re in the tent most of the day and at the end you think, what happened there? The days are always very busy, but I got a lot of job satisfaction. You work towards it for three-quarters of the year and to see it all come together is great.

David also tells of how the day just whizzes by.

“We normally steward all morning, get a bit of lunch and then you get to talk to people that you know, then all of a sudden everyone is packing up, you look at the time and it is 5 o’clock. But that’s what it’s all about. It’s a real social day and we attract a lot of people.

When Christine and David showed they started with the Ile de France sheep breed and then showed Lleyns, finding great success with their Blondes and Limousins when they started with cattle.

“We started showing sheep in the early nineties,” says Christine, who was often seen with good friends Marilyn Tate, Elaine Keith and Kate Jeffery.

“We then moved on to cattle, starting with commercials before going on to Limousins and had Interbreed Junior reserve champion at Newark, and Blondes with which we had a fair bit of success. We showed until 2012.

Such was their showing schedule at one time that there were times when shows clashed and David went to one while Christine would be at the other.

“We had two teams out one year,” says Christine. “When Ryedale clashed with the Royal Welsh. Myself, Kate and Marilyn went to Builth Wells and left David at home with the second team to go to Ryedale.

Christine and David no longer have cattle.

“Reagarth runs to 550 acres and we are now just arable across 400 acres and have around 400 breeding ewes,” says David.

“My granddad George came to Reagarth in 1932 when it was a new farmstead. Dad took over and we moved up here in 1994 after marrying in 1989.

"All I ever wanted to do, in all my years of going through school was to come home and drive a tractor and I’m still driving one today, although I did also have fifteen years driving a wagon for John Otterburn, carting either livestock or hay and straw in my younger days and that got me away from farm a bit.

David says this year’s crops are looking as though they could be pleasantly surprising.

“We’ve had crap weather, but they are looking remarkably well at the moment after what they’ve gone through in winter and spring.

"We have winter wheat across 130 acres. I always hope for a yield of 4 tonnes per acre and it’s usually around 3.5; 25 acres of Craft winter barley and 130 acres of Laureate spring barley all for malting which we got in late but it has come on well, and 80 acres of winter oats for snack bars with Morning Foods.

"We let 20 acres for potatoes. We also grow game cover for a local shoot over 35 acres.

“Our land is a bit variable. The top of the farm only has about 5-6 inches of soil and then on to solid rock, so in drought that burns off. The 200 acres in the bottom can grow potatoes.

“The sheep are a closed flock. We buy in the occasional tup from Carlisle or Skipton. We lamb end of March, beginning of April with our fat lambs going to Dunbia at Carnaby, and cull ewes and others to Thirsk market.

"My brother Kevin works for us, but it is myself and Christine who are the business partners.”

Christine says they have been involved in the SFI Pilot Scheme that comes to an end in October.

“I think Defra have learned a lot out of it. It’s completely different to when we went in. They have listened to what we and others have suggested. Some things have worked and some things haven’t.

"I think the weather just reminds you there has to be a balance between old ways and new ways and I think Defra has realised that agriculture in the UK is so diverse and that everybody has different systems.”

Christine ran her own farm secretarial business for many years before selling it to Cundalls, who she then worked with through the business. She has also been involved with the Institute of Agricultural Secretaries, which she chaired. Christine is now running ABT (Agricultural Business Training).

“I set up ABT to allow people who are doing their own books to update their skills. When HMRC went digital everybody had to change to working with computers to do their farm recording and largely the younger generation got passed that work.

“That was fine but while many were good on a laptop or online they didn’t know how to do bookkeeping, so there’s been a big demand for understanding VAT and accounts, so I’ve been doing some training and courses, working with the charities and the Farm Resilience Fund doing Business Skills Workshops.

“You can go on generic bookkeeping courses, but farming is a completely different beast to others. I’m now meeting a lot of the younger generation and they’re really up for the challenge.”

Ryedale Show is one of the largest attended one day shows in the county.