Farm of the Week: Specialist breeder finding himself in good company

He is host to the annual general meeting of the British White Cattle Society, which means about 60 breeders who will know exactly what he is talking about.

A few years ago, the society could probably have met in a phone box with the door open. Even now, with the breed booming, he has to travel to find competition. At most small shows, he is likely to end up in some sort of generic native breeds category.

However, at the East of England, the Norfolk and the Cheshire, he meets and beats the people with whom he will be spending the day. His youngest bull, bought for 1400 guineas as a calf, last year, has been breed champion in three of the four shows where it has been in a proper competition this summer. Last year, he had the breed society's Heifer of the Year.

He is also noted for his Teeswater sheep – also, nowadays, a speciality interest.

He is a fairly rare beast himself, having become a self-employed farmer from a standing start. He grew up in Pateley Bridge, with farming in his blood but no land to go with it. By 12, he was rearing sheep. At 16, he left school and started renting land as he could. At 39, he runs about 300 acres around the area, from a home base in Pateley Bridge, and is looking for his own farm to rent and expand in. He is a show judge of both cattle and sheep and handles both for Skipton Mart, every Monday, having learned the business at the old Masham Mart.

He is also called in for some special events, including the poultry shows. He has always kept hens and we speak with some wandering around us, in the farmyard he rents at Low Laithes. He sells a few eggs, at 1.80 a dozen, and regards the supermarket definition of 'free range' as fraud.

The rest of his operation is similarly old-school – natural pastures, providing grass, hay and silage, which more or less feed the stock. Most cows winter outdoors. Young animals come in and those heading for the butcher get a bit of barley mix and that is about it for supplements.

The British White suits his system – easy-going, hardy and made for survival on grass. Another virtue is versatility and he will be showing at the Dairy Event in Birmingham next month.

"I know a lot of farmers will only do anything for the money," he said. "But I do love the breed. Obviously I have to make a profit but I get pleasure out of them too. The breed can be traced back to Lancashire 500 years ago, but it became quite rare before being revived by the fashions for native breeds and natural rearing.

Mr Fisher met one when he was a boy and liked it. In 2004, he had been building a standard commercial beef business, using Limousin cows and Blue bulls, but it meant a lot of Caesarean births and a Limo cow in a bad mood, he says, is an awkward proposition for a lone operator. He is married but his wife, Juliette, works as a nurse.

He took some Teeswaters to the rare breeds sale in Melton Mowbray and saw a British White in calf, going for 1,000 guineas. He gambled his savings and she delivered a heifer which picked up a third-place rosette at the Royal Show. He began breeding and sold spares for beef to a Lakeland couple who did the farmers' markets until, two years ago, he was approached by Andrew Lofthouse, of Weetons of Harrogate.

He now takes around four animals a month and Mr Fisher turned down a chance to supply Fodder, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society's showcase shop, because he did not want to give Weetons the competition.

He does sell three or four carcasses a year himself, in freezer packs, on a local delivery round. He might take an extra customer or two but there is a limit to how much more he can do without new premises. He has to buy in calves for fattening as it is.

He had 30 cows calving this spring and has 112 Whites altogether, at the time of talking, including followers, three bulls and the stores, which he takes to 20-23 months before they are ready for the butcher.

His gratitude to Weetons is for finding customers prepared to pay for that patient pace of production (7.08 for a sirloin steak weighing 10 ounces, or 0.283 kilos, according to the shop website).

Back at Melton Mowbray, last year, in the breed sale where his commitment began, he sold a pair of heifers for 610 guineas each. He will be back with two more this year. Meanwhile, he has sold starter animals for three new herds this year. His breeding animals are spot-on to the show book specifications – black ears, black nose, four black feet and black teats.

"Not everybody is that fussy but I think of it like a stamp of quality," he said.

He has about 500 sheep – mainly Swaledales to produce Mules and Mules to produce Texel-cross lambs, on the standard Dales model. But he keeps a few Teeswaters because he always has.

As a sheep farmer, eight months into the EID experiment, he still sees it as a disaster. And his work at Skipton Mart has contributed to that view.

"The automatic readers are only picking up 95 per cent of the tags," he says. "You have to go back and find the missed ones manually and that means at least an extra man. Sometimes, you find the microchip has actually fallen out of the tag. Also, the tags are so big, putting them in the ears of a young lamb amounts to animal cruelty in my opinion."

Call Andrew Fisher on 07753 933 336.

CW 14/8/10