Farm of the Week: The show goes on and on after Holstein success

His all-conquering show cow Saxelby Goldwyn Rose took both prizes at the event at Birmingham's NEC, putting paid to Mr Butterfield's plans to scale back the amount of cattle he shows.

"We were cutting down with our showing of dairy cattle, but when you get two cows as good as we have at the moment you just keep going," he said.

Robert and Elaine Butterfield first caught the showing bug back in the 1980s but the past two years of showing two very good Holstein cows has seen them enjoy hitherto unseen success.

They reached what they had thought was the peak at this year's Great Yorkshire Show when Saxelby Goldwyn Rose was crowned both the Holstein and Interbreed Supreme Champion.

"We were the only Yorkshire exhibitor to win an Interbreed championship at the show this year," said Mrs Butterfield.

"The competition was really hot with 106 black and whites entered. But winning the Interbreed Supreme at the Dairy Event was even better as there were seven dairy breeds, whereas at Harrogate there were fewer."

Saxelby Goldwyn Rose was purchased from Andrew Stafford in Leicestershire two years ago along with another cow Saxelby Shottle Marie which has also won this year at Penrith Show. Both have brought considerable success to the Butterfields who farm at Linghaw Farm, High Bentham and Mr Butterfield is keen to point out that he didn't buy success.

"I didn't give a lot for either of them," said Mr Butterfield. "We just developed them on because we saw their potential. The judges have summed up Saxelby Goldwyn Rose as a good, balanced, complete cow and we had a classifier on the farm recently who said that she was like the true type model, not the biggest of cows but very well balanced and with a good udder."

This year's success has been the culmination of a gradual rise from Saxelby Goldwyn Rose taking the Junior Championship at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2008, followed by Reserve Champion at Harrogate last year and wins at Penrith, Garstang, Westmorland and Agriscot shows in 2009. As a result they had their fingers crossed that she would do well this year, so long as she calved at the right time.

"We took her to the Royal Highland Show this year. She had only just calved 10 days before, but she still took Reserve Champion."

Mr and Mrs Butterfield already have plans to attempt further success next year. They are currently trying to get her to calve a couple of weeks earlier so that she stands a better chance of taking the Supreme Championship at Edinburgh, as well as hopefully replicating the Great Yorkshire achievements of this year, but Mr Butterfield knows better than to count on anything just yet.

"In dairying you cannot guarantee anything. We have a few more prospects and we have been showing another young cow which came from Ireland. We have a lot of good heifers right now."

Mr Butterfield's father, Richard, moved to the next door farm, Batty Farm, in 1947 before buying Linghaw Farm in 1973 and moving the whole of the farming operation here which now runs to some 330 acres, all down to grass. Milking started at Linghaw in 1979 and today the Butterfields are part-owners and part-tenants.

He said: "When dad started he was on with Dairy Shorthorns. He went on to Friesians in the 1960s before we then moved on to Holsteins. Today we milk about 115 all year round and we calve around 170-180 a year always selling at marts such as Lancaster, Carlisle and Bentham."

Whilst many dairy farmers make most of their income from milk the Butterfields lean more toward sales of dairy cattle.

"We don't really make our money out of milk," he said. "Our business is more about selling pedigree stock. You never give up hope on getting a better milk price but it doesn't happen so fast."

Nevertheless with a herd average of 9,600 litres Mr Butterfield is clearly not short on production. Saxelby Goldwyn Rose produced 12,375 litres as a second calver. There's nothing fancy about the Butterfields' diet regime either.

"Our Holstein cows like silage," he said. "Two-thirds of their diet is silage nearly all year round. The cows are out from late April/early May and come in at the end of this month. We feed them on grass, silage and sugar beet, with a blend on top of the silage. We keep our feeding down to the basics."

The couple have three daughters – Sandra, Pamela and Kathryn. Sandra is area supervisor for the milk recording service CIS, whilst Pamela and Kathryn run Flowerfields, an Interflora florists and fruit and veg business which started independently of the farm in 2003.

Son-in-law James Atkinson, Sandra's husband, works on the farm and another local girl Louise Robinson helps out too.

Whilst Mr Butterfield is understandably proud of their success this year and admits that having great dairy cattle is a real spur to carry on showing he also talks of the toll it takes out of him.

"We used to exhibit at a lot of local agricultural shows but our first big one was when we went to the 75th anniversary of the British Friesian Cattle Society in 1984.

"We started on properly with showing because we had Ingleview Buttergirl 47, who did very well for us and was our only previous breed champion at the Great Yorkshire Show back in 1989, but in the early 90s we didn't do a lot of showing whilst the girls were growing up.

"I really was looking at cutting down on showing but these two cows in particular have made me keep going.

"It's not as easy when you're getting older as you come home from each show very tired."

There may well be a number of Mr Butterfield's fellow competitors wishing that his tiredness kicks in a little further over the winter and stops him and Mrs Butterfield from preparing Saxelby Goldwyn Rose for further conquests next year.

CW 18/9/10