Tockwith Show: The returning Yorkshire agricultural show which is set to pack a punch

Their problem wasn’t financial, Tockwith & District Show Society is one of the few that has its own showground. It was just a lack of people available to make sure the show could go ahead.

Steph Hughes farms in a family partnership with her brother Nick, mum and dad Edwina and Nigel, and grandparents Philip and Shirley. Steph is also sheep secretary for Tockwith Show, following on from granddad Philip around seven years ago.

“No-one wanted to call off the show last year,” says Steph who also shows sheep. “But a show can’t run without volunteers and that’s been the thing we have struggled with most. Fortunately, we’ve had more come forward and we also now have new faces on the committee, but we always need more.

“The sheep section has grown over the years to somewhere between 150-200 entries with the Ryeland breed being our biggest classes. We also run breed classes for Texels, and Any Other Breeds Continentals and Natives; and also Crossbred sheep and Butchers lambs.

“We’re quite happy to create new breed classes where the numbers become good, and we’re aware that the Any Other Breed classes can become very difficult to judge when you have something like a Valais Blacknose sheep alongside a Beltex or Blue Texel.

“When we published this year’s show schedule there was a bit of concern over bluetongue restrictions. Everything was up in the air and coming back after missing last year’s show there was some concern over the numbers we might attract, but entries have come in nicely. It’s just about getting people used to the show being back on again.

Steph enjoys showing but says she’s nowhere near as successful as her granddad was when Philip used to show.

“I took some commercials and crossbred females to Harrogate last month for the Great Yorkshire Show. That’s what I’ve shown there for the last couple of years. I take my pedigree Blue Texels to shows like Ryedale, Thornton-le-Dale and sometimes Aldborough & Boroughbridge, as well as Tockwith, and I’m just building my Texel flock back up, so hopefully I will take some of them out.

“I love taking granddad with me to where I show. Things have changed slightly for me these days, as I now have to work as well, so it all just depends as I have a few more responsibilities than I used to, now being a partner in the family farm and working on other farms.

“I had a reserve champion at Thornton le Dale a few years ago with a Blue Texel tup.

Angram Grange Farm is the family base but their farmed land also includes land owned near to Askham Bryan College.

“We farm about 350 acres altogether, with most of it rented from Hutton Wandesley Estate,” says Steph.

“All six of us are now in the family partnership as myself and Nick, who does all the engineering side as well as doing whatever is needed on the farm, were made partners in the business about three years ago. We all sit around the table and discuss what we should do.

“We’re a mixed farm with about 100 acres of combinable crops, including winter wheat, winter barley and oats with most of what we grow going into animal feed; and we have cattle and sheep on our 250 acres of grass.

While Steph helps dad Nigel with baling contracting and will also work on the arable side, she says she’s more on the livestock side.

“We have a suckler herd of 50 cows, mainly Limousin, but also Belgian Blues and currently have around 100-head. We have a Limousin bull and we bought an Angus bull a year since, that we’ve just started calving to it.

“We’d kept some replacement heifers and were wondering what to do with them. We thought about AI, but decided to buy an Angus bull for them and also use it for cleaning up when we take the Limousin bull out.

“Our main sheep flock currently runs to 450 head, of which 180 are breeding ewes. We also have small pedigree flocks of Texels and Blue Texels. We use them to cross and go into the commercial flock where we run a mix of tups we have - Texel, Beltex and Blue Texel. In the commercial flock we have quite a lot of Cheviot Mules that we cross with the Texel and some Suffolk-crosses as well. We brought in the Cheviot Mule about five years ago.

Nigel says that previously they’d been mainly Suffolk-crosses.

“We find the Cheviots are a bit hardier, and chuck some nice crossed lambs, but we have a little bit of allsorts. Recently we did some embryo transplants and bought some Zwartbles as recipients, but they ended up being part of the breeding flock and we keep some of those females now.

Cattle and sheep are all sold at Selby and at Otley (Wharfedale) with the cattle going as stores.

Nigel says that this year’s start of harvest has been the earliest he can remember.

“We were only just into July when we harvested our 30 acres of Caravelle winter barley which looked pretty good. We’ve also 25 acres of winter wheat and 20 acres of winter oats.

“As Angram Grange is part of the estate and we are tenants on the farm, we do a bit of a land swap, so part of my arable this time has their potatoes on it. So this year our 100 acres includes an acreage that’s not mine. We also have SFIs and an old stewardship agreement.

There’s nothing more that Steph would like than to work wholly on the family farm, but she understands that she has to get income from elsewhere and is currently thoroughly enjoying working three days a week for a dairy farm in Stillington.

“I just help people out on their farms when they need me. I’ve been with the dairy farm since October last year and really enjoy working there. They’ve robots to milk the cows, so I work on a lot of general jobs including a lot of work with the young stock.

Steph and Nick are the fourth generation to farm at Angram Grange where their dad Nigel grew up and where their mum Edwina now also works alongside them having been an accountant previously.

Nigel says that he’s not a guaranteed attendee of Tockwith Show every year, but he is a volunteer beforehand and after the show.

“It’s a bit hit and miss for me, as it’s always harvest time, but I do help where I can.

Tockwith Show makes its welcome return to Yorkshire’s agricultural show calendar tomorrow, Sunday 3 August. If you’re interested in volunteering let them know.