Farm of the Week: Regular among honours helps keep breed strong

A hundred years ago, no Yorkshire farmer would have believed that the Wensleydale sheep might one day be on the "watch list" of something called The Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

But a lot of things can change in 100 years. And there is every chance they will change back again this century.

For that reason, Yvonne Mudd is content to make more or less no money from keeping her Wensleydales.

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She gets her satisfaction from seeing bloodlines she has had a hand in spreading their influence through the national flock, and abroad, as the breed steps slowly but steadily back towards being a useful part of the sheep producers' repertoire.

One of her rams sired two winners of the Royal Show after being sold to Sussex, for example.

She grew up Yvonne Hayton, daughter of Victor Hayton, of Beckwithshaw – famous as a breeder, shower and judge of Suffolks.

"But I wanted to do something different," she says.

She tried working in an office and hated it. After a bit more of this and that, she married Henry Mudd and moved onto the small farm where he raises commercial beef crosses and a few Belted Galloways as a specialty, on Thistle Hill, just south of Knaresborough.

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One of the first things she did was buy a Wensleydale ewe in lamb. It had twin gimmers and she bought a couple more and a ram.

Some 20 years on, almost all the sheep she has bred can be traced back to that initial small collection.

"I've bought in the odd ram but hardly any females for a long time," she says.

"I just see one that is special and think I'll keep that."

She will study pedigrees with interest when they are available but does not pay much attention to the computerised version, Estimated Breeding

Values.

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Never liked computers all that much, she says. It does not seem to have done her much harm.

With only 15 breeding ewes – part of a flock numbering about 40 in total at the moment – she is a regular in the honours lists at the Yorkshire agricultural shows and the big breed sales.

At the time of talking, she has just won Best Fleece and Reserve Breed Champion at the Ryedale.

The one-year-old gimmer the winning fleece came from was best fleece on the hoof at Otley.

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The March-born lamb that came second in breed at the Ryedale did the same at the Great Yorkshire. In 2008, she got best fleece at the Great Yorkshire and that is the nearest she has got so far to her ambition.

"I told my dad I'd win the Yorkshire Show for him one day," she says. "I always enter because it's my local show."

Still, the fleece success is some satisfaction meanwhile. Fleece is the main point of a Wensleydale.

Along with the Teeswater and the Bluefaced Leicester, it produces the finest of British wool – returning 3.50 a kilo to the farmer at the moment, compared with under 1 for carpet-grade wool from the standard Dales Mule.

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The Wensleydale will also produce two or three times as much wool in weight.

It is a big sheep. Mrs Mudd's top ram weighs in at 200 kilos.

A hundred years ago, Wensleydales were crossed with Dalesbreds to make Masham ewes for the lamb production business. But the combination lost out to Bluefaced Leicester rams serving Swaledales to make Mules.

Mrs Mudd refers us for an explanation to veteran sheep and beef man Bert Verity, about to celebrate his 97th birthday at Kirkby Overblow.

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His father ran Wensleydales, near Masham, before sheep had any recognised pedigree lines or breed society definitions to go with their names.

In those days, says Mr Verity, they had white or grey faces and were more like today's Texel.

But Masham showmen started a demand for brown and black faces – just for the looks.

And in the process of satisfying this whim, says Mr Verity, the Wensleydale was changed and the Masham "lost its stamina".

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In his schooldays, he remembers, that the original Masham would be crossed back with the Wensleydale to make the Ripon Hogg and it was

"the predominant fattening breed between Cumberland and Leicestershire".

But it was ruined and the Mule took over, although the Mule was never as good, he reckons.

Fashion has always been a big influence in the sheep business, it seems. At the moment, it is working in favour of the Wensleydale again.

Wool is making a small comeback against synthetics.

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Individual spinners and weavers and knitters are making a small comeback against factory production and they like Wensleydale wool. Also, for some reason, according to the Wool Board, there seems to be a small but welcome market for it as naturalistic doll hair.

Mrs Mudd never liked knitting herself but she thanks goodness for those who do.

She vaccinates her sheep against pests rather than dipping, so the fleeces do not smell.

She also departs from standard industry practice by hand-clipping her best sheep. That way, she can leave enough wool on to grow a quick curl, so she can carry on showing after shearing.

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"The only thing is, it takes me 40 minutes rather than the 40 seconds you see in the demonstration events," she says.

Her son, Ben, 18, has just left Askham Bryan College and started working for a local farmer. Meanwhile, he keeps some of his own sheep alongside hers – Teeswaters.

Mrs Mudd had champion ram lamb at the Wensleydale Sheep Association's' annual show and sale at Skipton last year.

This year's is on September 4. She will also be at the annual Rare Breeds Sale, at Melton Mowbray, on September 13.

But her regular market for sales to the butcher is Otley.

CW 7/8/10

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