Why Shetland sheep will be in a class of their own at this year's Egton Show

Amanda took on the role at her local show the year before the Covid outbreak in 2019 and now has three shows under her belt.

“I’ve known Daphne (Jackson) the overall show secretary for a long time, I went to school with her daughter and now work alongside her at Richardson & Smith and Ruswarp livestock market. Daphne asked whether I would do it and after three goes I think I know what I’m doing now.

“We normally have around 550 sheep entries and I’m having to split off the Shetlands into their own class from the Primitives this year.

"Our cattle numbers are around 20-30 and we still have dairy from two exhibitors with the Myers’ from Rosedale and Lucy Brown from Ugthorpe. We’d always be interested in more.”

Egton has a wonderful reputation for offering somewhere for those on holiday in the North York Moors and Whitby a fabulous day out as well as still being first and foremost an agricultural show that is well supported by farmers and agricultural machinery and agricultural supply companies.

“I first took sheep to Egton when I was 14,” says Amanda. “I always went to shows with my nana and granddad Diana and Neville Spenceley.

"My nana set off the Shetland classes at the Great Yorkshire Show that now sees the breed as one of the top 10 breeds at the show in terms of number. Ripley was the other main one as it is the Northern area championship.”

Amanda is now one of the leading lights in the Shetland world.

“I took over from granddad when I came back from studying at Askham Bryan College when I was 17 and I’ve been doing really well more recently.

"I got female champion at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2022 and last year I had Interbreed Champion at the York Rare Breeds Show & Sale with a tup I sold for 525 guineas. For a Shetland to get Interbreed was a big thing and that price is the most I’ve ever sold for any Shetland.

"I also got overall champion at Ripley last year, but I’ve just been that busy this year that I haven’t been as involved.”

Amanda’s flock prefix is Billerhowe. Her grandparents lived at Billra Farm at Fylingdales and the cottage where they started their flock in the 80s was called Billerhowe Cottage.

“The flock currently runs to 15 ewes and with this year’s and last year’s lambs there are 35 altogether.”

One of Amanda’s proudest achievements came last year.

“I’ve been twice to Shetland, last October a tup I bred sold into the Shetlands, thanks to the help of Kate Sharp of East Lothian, Shetland champion three years in row at Great Yorkshire Show.”

Amanda is in the thick of everything farming oriented with her livestock secretary role, work on the family farm at Mitten Hill Farm, Hawsker, work in the auction mart and her young farmers club activities.

“I’m Whitby Young Farmers secretary and Eskdale District vice chair and do a lot of stockjudging. My elder sister Jess was also in young farmers and mum and dad were in Fylingthorpe Young Farmers before it folded.”

The Cass farming enterprise is run by dad Simon, with Amanda and Jess, who recently married, and Amanda’s mum Sharon.

“We have 380 acres of arable and grassland and 40 acres of woodland,” says Amanda. “We only have 20 suckler cows at the minute, but we are wanting to build numbers up again.

"We normally grow winter crops of wheat, barley and oilseed rape, but this year we are all spring crops because of the weather. We got some oilseed rape in but had to pull that up because of the weather, which was so depressing.

“We retain some barley for ourselves, some goes farm to farm. Our land type is clay loam that is not heavy-going and our wheat yield is normally around three tonnes, three and a half in a good year.

“Dad’s the main man. He drives the combine, drills, sprays. We do everything but baling. Jess leads the corn, ploughs and the nitty gritty jobs. I’m more the cows and sheep.

"We’re in mid-tier stewardship with buffer zones, nectar mixes, pollen strips. When that ends in 2025 we’ll look into the SFI. We’ve had a fencing grant off Yorkshire Wildlife Trust which has helped a lot with livestock. Dad did it all himself, he’s a bit of a legend really.

“Our suckler herd is a mix of Hereford/Blue cows. We borrow a Shorthorn bull off my partner Dave who buys a lot of Shorthorns for Morrisons. We also buy a few dairy calves that we sell as stores through Ruswarp.”

Amanda and Jess are the fourth generation to farm at Mitten Hill.

“My dad’s dad’s mum bought the farm. She married a Cass and was a Herd previously.

“Jess and I were both keen right from being kids. We both went to Askham Bryan to do Level 3 Agriculture. I started at Ruswarp Mart about 18 months ago. It’s great to work for Richardson & Smith.”

Amanda and Dave, who’ve been together eight years, have a fifth generation of farming at Mitten Hill in the making with son George who won a young handlers competition at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2022. Dave also has his own flock of Welsh Mountain Badgerfaces.

Never one to pass up an opportunity of a job Amanda also works at the Hare & Hounds pub in Hawsker two nights a week where she has worked since she was 13. What price on her bringing back Sneaton & Hawsker Show?