Keeping it in the family for the competitive Wilsons

There is no room for blood loyalty among the Wilsons. All three want to beat each other – even if they don’t lift a trophy. There’s father and son, Ray and Ian, who show Texels, and Ian’s wife, Anna, who shows Kerry Hill sheep.

The trio are preparing for the shows across the North York Moors and Cleveland Hills. They are not dyed-in-the-wool veterans.

“We’ve only been showing for the past three years,” says Ray.

“We go to the North Yorkshire, Borrowby, Cleveland, Rosedale, Egton and Stokesley. It’s something we all enjoy and we manage to make it fit around the rest of the farm activity.

“We usually enter two sheep in most of the classes. When it comes to who is taking which entry in to the ring, Ian picks one to take in and I take the other, or I pick first. We make it fair to each other by being even on who has first choice.

“Once we’re in the ring you can forget about the father-son connection, it’s a bit of a family battle as to who can do best. It’s all in good fun, but there’s a bit of pride in there.

“There are plenty of times when you will be taking something in to the ring that you know hasn’t a hope of winning, but because we’re both in there together, you can still get some satisfaction out of coming fourth if the other of us is fifth. It’s all a matter of how far up the line you can get. Sometimes you can get into the rosettes just by making your entry stand a bit better.

“We have learned so much in the last few years. In 2010, we took part in five shows and won four Texel championships, had three reserve champions, a best female on the showground and two interbreed champions.

“I think the honours between Ian and myself came out just about even in the end, or at least that’s the polite thing to say.

“Anna has done well too and was champion at Egton Show last year. She does really well to win as her breed goes in with a number of other native breeds, so her classes are generally much bigger than ours.

“Ian and I may be in a class that has seven or eight Texels, but Anna might have as many as 25-30 in hers. That can be tricky and it takes something special to come out on top from that many, but as they say, it’s not the quantity, it’s quality that counts.

“Anna wants to win just as much as Ian and myself. I think we would all really enjoy competing against each other for an inter-breed title. That would be quite something if all three of us were stood together for that. It’s something to aim for.”

The Wilsons are tenant farmers with around 350 acres. It’s a mixed farm including arable land, growing barley and oil seed rape; a herd of 20 beef cattle and the sheep.

“We have 300 ewes with a split of 100 Texels and 200 Mules, then there’s Anna’s small flock of Kerry Hills. We buy our tups from Carlisle and we sell most of our lambs through Thirsk Livestock Centre.

“One of the benefits of attending the agricultural shows in the past three years, as well as achieving good results, has also been in raising the profile of our stock.

“We have always had a good reputation but there are now even more buyers who know abou t us.”

North Yorkshire County Show, which has the biggest summer poultry show in the North of England, is on Sunday, June 19, on the A167, three miles from Northallerton.