In it to win it - meet sheep showman Andrew Fisher of Nidderdale whose eyes are firmly on winning red rosettes

“I just love showing sheep,” he says, having returned at the weekend from a clutch of rare breed sheep shows and sales at Melton Mowbray and Ludlow, and with a sale at Carlisle to prepare for this weekend before his less than three miles to Pateley Bridge on Monday. “That’s one that you hope to win at. It’s on your doorstep and everyone knows you.”

Andrew’s had another tremendous season, particularly with his Kerry Hill and Clun Forest breeds. His Kerry shearling was breed champion at the Great Yorkshire Show and went on to become reserve hill breed champion in the Interbreed section, while his Clun gimmer shearling was Any Other Breed champion at Gargrave and Aldborough & Boroughbridge, and reserve at Stafford. Not bad considering he only took on the breed 18 months ago.

“I’d always fancied having Kerrys and now have 36 ewes. They’re a bit addictive. They are good mothers, hardy, attractive and have become very popular. Their only downside is they’re a bit wick. It doesn’t matter how much you do with them, they still want to be up some Welsh hills. I’ve a few too many just at the moment so I’ll sell a few in-lamb in January after I’ve had them scanned.

“I started with the Cluns when two friends from near Carlisle – Mary Parry and Jennifer Hunter – were downsizing. I said I’d buy four in-lamb ewes but when they came with the trailer out came seven. ‘Buy four, we’ll give you three’, they said. It has gone from there. They are excellent mothers, very milky and striking with a good carcase and I wouldn’t be frightened of having a commercial flock and to cross them with the Texel.”

He’s more noted for his long-term success with his Teeswaters, the breed that set him on his way.

“I had a year out from showing them last year. This year I’ve just been showing ewes, rams and lambs and had champion and reserve at Gargrave. I have 14 breeding ewes. The demand for Teeswater wool is now unbelievable and is starting to attract the commercial sheep men and women. You can get up to £30 per kilo for hogg fleeces and up to 6 kilos per fleece means they can be worth close to £200. Ewe fleeces come in at around £20-£25. I have a local lady Yvonne Le Mer who buys my best fleeces at the end of show season and Josh Page from Wales who buys the rest. There’s a huge demand for the wool in America for both Teeswater and Wensleydale. They are recognised as the best wool in the world. I’ll get five or six shears off each ewe.”

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Andrew found himself hooked to sheep from an early age and would help out on his uncle Ted Harker’s farm at Lofthouse.

“My granddad Jim and uncle Ted had Swaledales and I was sheep mad as soon as I could go, really. I’d started off rearing some pet lambs and at 11 I was given a pedigree Teeswater gimmer pet lamb. I got it registered, joined the breed society showed it and everything just grew from there.

“She didn’t come anywhere that first time out, but that was expected. The second year I went to 10 shows and got three third places. I had three ewes by then as I’d bought a couple of ewes off John Newbould at Leyburn auction mart. I remember going there with my sister Caroline and my gran Mary Harker. We brought them back in the back of her car.

“I listened, learned and picked everything up from people like Jack Ripley of Maunby near Thirsk who showed Mashams, Charollais and Teeswaters and Cecil Hutchinson. I helped Jack with his show sheep. When Jack retired I got one or two good Teeswaters off him.

“Every bit of money I’ve ever earned from working on farms or at Bridge End Mart in Otley, Masham and now Skipton, where I work two days a week and run pedigree cattle sales, unload trailers, weigh livestock and also clerk and steward, goes into my livestock. It all helps expand the farm where I have a commercial flock of 400 Mule X Texel ewes. The Texel X gimmers go back to either the Beltex or Texel tup. I have a few Suffolk X Mules. I buy replacements at Skipton and sell fat lambs there too. I lamb the commercial flock from late March and the pedigrees in February.”

Andrew also has a small herd of British White cattle that he started in 2010 and at one stage had 35 cows. The herd had grown in line with an arrangement he had to supply a Harrogate-based food business. Unfortunately, when the owner sold up, the butcher changed his purchase policy. The herd now numbers just five cows.

“I’ve kept the family that won all the breed titles for me and I’ve been very lucky this year that all five cows have had heifer calves while demand in the last 12 months has gone through the roof. Nidderdale Celine was the first heifer I won with. It is her family line I’m keeping going. Her daughters have all done well and her son won bull of the year before I sold him to Woodbastwick in Norfolk, the oldest herd in the country. I currently have a homebred bull, by my bull Nidderdale Ryan that won at the Great Yorkshire Show.

“The breed has been celebrating its centenary this year with classes at three major shows – the Royal Welsh, Three Counties and Norfolk. I had an in-calf cow at Norfolk that won female champion, became breed champion and then came home and had a heifer calf. I’ve entered her in the Any Other Breed native breed class at Pateley. I’m also showing all the three breeds of sheep too. Fortunately, I have my good friend Christina Liddle who has helped me for years.”

Andrew moved in to a cottage at Well House Farm in Low Laithe between Summerbridge and Pateley Bridge five years ago where he grazes 20 acres and has had farm buildings for 10 years. His farming operation now extends to around 200 acres.

While Andrew clearly enjoys the camaraderie around the sheep pens, he has his eyes firmly set on his goals when in the ring. “Always aim for the top whatever you do, aim for the red rosette,” he says.