The family farm run by one of Yorkshire's most hard-working characters

“My parents farmed at Ramsgill just up the road from the show and I’ve been going all my life.

"It’s always a bit of a gamble with the weather at this time of year, but with it being the last show of the season everyone is on a bit of a high.

“Dad entered cattle from our Brown Swiss dairy herd and had always been on the show committee.

"I came on to it just before he died five years ago. I don’t think there’s ever been a show where someone hasn’t said to me that I need to go and do this or that.

“Growing up, helping dad at the show, meant it became engrained.”

Steven and Charlotte moved to Gamsworth a year last March following a route that has seen them start farming together at Norwood, picking up land near Ripon, in addition to using some land at the home farm and other pockets and now sees their farming enterprise very much focused on calf rearing.

“That’s our main income,” says Steven. “We started with sheep, but they have become more of a hobby now. Other main incomes are from being ‘a man with a tractor and trailer’.”

Steven wasn’t destined to follow his parents into farming at all. It turned out to be a chance conversation that led he and Charlotte down their path.

“When I was at college there was no way that I was going to be a farmer. I trained as a mechanic, an agricultural engineer. It was pub talk with a friend that led us to where we are now.

"A friend that worked for Yorkshire Water told us about Scow Hall Farm and it was Charlotte who said we could put some sheep on it.

"We thought nothing more, but the friend rang the next day and asked whether we wanted to do that? So we did.

“We moved up there for 18 months and although when it came up for tenancy we missed out that was the kick start of ‘we’re going to farm’. The sheep we’d had at Scow then went up to Longside, the home family farm at Ramsgill.

“We applied for farms after leaving Scow. We then had the opportunity of renting land near Ripon from a very good friend.

"He had a big shed that had hay in it, but there was room for more. I asked whether I could put some calves in.

“We shopped around a bit, looked at different schemes, and the Warrendale Wagyu scheme jumped out at us.

"There’s a lot of calf rearing schemes when you really start looking, but with Warrendale you fund your own animal, none of the other schemes do that.”

Steven says it was a no brainer: “The money side stacked up a lot better, so instead of trying to buy our own and stretch ourselves it seemed a good thing to take theirs on.

"The finance deal was that you pay for them as they leave, everything has worked well.

"We started doing 20 calves a month, we’re now at 50, with stock to us at two weeks and keeping them until five months and between 170-200 kilos before going on to a grower.”

Steven and Charlotte are now turning over 600 cattle a year and have recently taken another forward movement.

“There’s a shortage of calves in the system at the moment and we’ve started buying some of our own. We’ve not restricted ourselves to Wagyu.

"We’ll buy anything that’s the right money at auction, mostly at Skipton, and we’ve just started buying from a dairy farm.”

Sheep still have a part to play at Gamsworth and Steven says without starting with them they might not be where they are now.

“When we took on land at Scow we put all the money we had for a house deposit into sheep, and we still haven’t bought a house. We only had 50 sheep there. We’ve now got 150 ewes, which includes Texels, Mules and Swaledales, and yet they’re not our biggest thing.

“We lambed just over 200 last year. It’s a bit of a mix of all sorts with a lot going as fat lambs and we’ve started selling ewes with lambs at foot. We tried breeding a few of our own replacements for the Swaledales but that was an experiment.

"We normally buy a packet of broken-mouthed Swaleys, about five shears, and put them to a Texel tup to get a Texdale lamb out of them. All our lambs go through Skipton where we have a good relationship.

"They were the first mart to ring to ask if we needed anything. We’re very loyal. If someone’s right with us, we’ll never move away from them.”

Steven and Charlotte now farm across around 150 acres with around 50 near Ripon; land up at Harewood and 70 acres at Barden, and another income is from horse hay.

“We get through 700 big square bales a year,” says Steven. “We go from Masham to Ilkley to around Pateley and Ripon delivering.”

They have also moved into the holiday market with a pop-up campsite called Pasture Pitches.

“We started it last year and we’ve had two tremendous seasons.

"We have 50 pitches for campervans and tents. I built our own shower and toilet block. We have four toilets and two hot showers.”

Steven pays tribute to the couple who had Gamsworth before.

“Cath and Howard Fearnley left us a brilliant farm. They still live locally, in a house in the village just over the hill. They’ve been fantastic. We’ve rung them quite a few times for advice.

“It would have been nice taking on the family farm but I think where we are now is a lot nicer and we have lovely neighbours. It feels like we just fit right in with the community here.”

Many will know of Knaresborough Tractor Run. Steven started it with friends through Knaresborough YFC and it has grown into the biggest tractor run in the UK. It was also responsible for Steven and Charlotte getting together.

“Charlotte came and stewarded one year. Her family moved over here from New Zealand quite a few years ago. She was living back over there at the time and came over here to see her mum and dad.”

Steven and Charlotte’s children, five-year old William and two-year old Felicity, are the next generation and will both be taking part at Nidderdale Show.

“This will be his William’s fourth year doing young handlers. He’s already really good with the sheep.”