“We are still at the start of our showing journey": Young farming couple on their first year showing

‘We started showing last year,’ says Sarah. ‘We’d bought three heifers from the Limousin Red Ladies Day at Borderway Mart in Carlisle. One had shown a little bit, the other hadn’t, but they were both halter-trained. Otley Show was our first and we won there with Uggs, who was reserve champion. Ursoposh took a second place. We also did well at Malton and we also did the Great Yorkshire Show.

Nick’s family, particularly his grandfather Philip and sister Steph, are well-known show people; and Nick did well in young farmers club stockjudging. It was this background that led to last year’s Harrogate debut.

‘Nick encouraged me to go,’ says Sarah. ‘And we had a fifth and sixth place in what are big classes. We were happy that we’d been and done it and got the experience.

‘This year we’re showing Lotherton Arnie and Lotherton Apricot. We’ve already done well with them and there’s a greater sense of achievement and personal pride because they are our own homebred animals.

‘Nick and I showed at the Northern Limousin Extravaganza at Skipton livestock market in May. Arnie took a first place in a big class and got reserve champion, while Apricot was second in hers.

‘We are still at the start of our showing journey but we’ve had a lot of help from family and friends on what to do and how to do it. I’m always watching what others are doing.

‘We didn’t do the Great Yorkshire last week, instead we are doing Driffield Show and possibly Ryedale Show. Arnie is certainly getting the interest. He’s 18 months old and we’re not in huge rush to sell him, but there are those who are looking. If we still have him in September we may enter him for Nidderdale Show.

‘I enjoy showing and getting the Lotherton name out there. We are just opposite Lotherton Hall. We are looking to sell pedigree working bulls and we’ve already sold three this year, all in the past month and at decent money.

Sarah says Silverhill Farm runs to around 600 acres and is predominantly an arable farm but that the cattle are beginning to play a major role, both with their commercial herd and the Limousins.

‘My parents (Philip and Debbie) bought the farm in 2005 and we moved here in 2010. We were in Stanley near Wakefield before and dad had pigs. They had a plant hire business and now they run tankers transporting slurry for Yorkshire Water mainly, with about sixteen tankers on the road. Dad spends a lot of the time now on a tanker.

‘It’s a team effort between all of us. We got the cattle originally because we needed a reason to have a house here. Lotherton Estate is now our company name but Silverhill Farm, where we live, comes from the name of the field.

‘I grew up sat next to my dad in the combine and on the tractor, now I drive the combine while Nick and dad lead the corn. Nick drives the baler and both Nick and dad lead the bales.

‘This year’s crops are looking good. We’ve around 250 acres of winter wheat, 100 of oilseed rape, 90 of winter barley, 50 of spring barley, 40 maize and 60 grass. We do it all ourselves. Dad does all the drilling, spraying, bedding, cultivations and I help out.

‘We’re on limestone which is good free-draining land and we average between 3.5 to 4 tonnes per acre for wheat.

Sarah says her dad bought some Aberdeen Angus-crossed cows in-calf with calves at foot when he started with cattle in 2010.

‘Dad then bought 10 British Blue-crossed heifers from Dorothy and Nick Ingham in Ledston and the commercial herd has grown from there. We currently have 140 cattle in the herd with a mix of Simmental, Angus and British Blue-crossed stock of the 100 commercial head, with everything put to the Limousin bull.

“Our Limousin herd runs to 40 of those 140. Nick and I went to the Red Ladies Sale in 2022 where we picked up the heifers from the Goldie herd in Dumfries. We selected them for genetics, conformation and how they looked.

‘At the time, dad had a Limmie bull, an Angus bull and a Simmental bull, since then we are purely Limousin bulls. We bulled those first three heifers with our stock Limmie bull. We’ve still got him on-farm now. He’s a good bull that will sire heifers and will do well on both commercial and pedigree stock. When we look for bulls we try to get easy calving and focus on genes and temperament. Everything we have is in a health scheme and we run the commercials and pedigrees as one herd.

While selling quality stock to others is already an aim being achieved, Sarah and Nick are well aware that beef cattle is their bread and butter, as well as crops.

‘We fatten everything and all stock except pedigree sales go to Selby livestock market. We take bulls through to fat between 18-20 months and at roughly 800-900 kilos, with heifers going at 600-700.

‘Dad never turned anything out but this is the third summer we’ve done so. We have some rented land at Sherburn in Elmet where we turn out the Limmies plus a few

commercials.

Sarah is already looking to the future and would like to expand the herd overall, both pedigrees and commercials.

‘We’d like to have a few more cows, that would mean putting up a new shed. I wouldn’t go all Limmie. Commercials are easier. What we have been doing more recently has been upping our quality and that has led to getting rid of quite a lot of older cows in the last 3 years, either because of a bad bag or not getting in-calf.

‘We’re now at the stage where we are able to keep some heifers and young bulls back. This year we’ve 24 breeding cattle in the Limousins and with six younger heifers on their way we should be at 30 next year.

Sarah and Nick have been together since Askham Bryan College days and are taking the Lotherton pedigree herd forward. Nick has his own workshop. He works specifically on John Deere farm machinery.

‘I have a round of farms where I look after the tractors,’ says Nick.

Sarah and her sister were both members of Bramham Moor Pony Club and shared a Shetland pony.

‘We competed, and my sister still does, at a much higher level. I’m quite happy at grass roots level – and now competing with Lotherton Limousins.