Ryedale Show: It’s a love supreme as couple scoop championship title

A cattleman and his wedding photographer fiancee have spoken of their joy after one of the ewes they raise in their spare time was named the best of the 1,314 sheep entries at Ryedale Show.

James Bailey and his fiancee Nikki Ramsey, of Sutton under Whitestonecliffe, near Thirsk, lifted the supreme champion with a Badger Face Texel ewe after a unanimous decision by the three judges and landing the shortwool champion title.

They said landing the supreme title meant a lot “as a lot of hard work and effort goes into these sheep and it proves we are doing something right”.

Mr Bailey added: “It’s a team effort. There's months and months of preparations that goes into these shows.

"Getting them fed right, the wool trimmed down and the shape right, keeping them in healthy condition. It is a passion and you only get out what you put in.

“Fitting the sheep in around my full-time job, it does take a lot out of you. Some very late nights and early mornings.

"She’s a great ewe, she’s had sections or breed champion at every show she’s been to so far, including the Great Yorkshire Show. She’s going from strength to strength.”

Ahead of one of the North’s most prestigious interbreed championships, this year's show President, Harome livestock farmer Ian Rooke, said having competed with Jacob, Charollais and Sufffolk sheep as well as fat lambs and stewarded at the event since he was a teenager, the event’s strong reputation for sheep classes was well established.

"I'm having a quieter day today”, he said. “Normally I'd be stewarding so I'll get a chance to see the show. It's one of the biggest livestock shows there is, the setting is fantastic with Duncombe Park in the background and a view right over Ryedale."

Organisers said entries in the sheep classes – some with more than 20 each - had been particularly strong. There were some 36 entries in the two Young Handlers classes and more than 100 across the Shetland sheep competitions.

However, the Coloured Ryeland section saw the greatest number of entries – some 130.

Crowds gathered at the centre of the 643 sheep pens that volunteers had set up to see judge Bob Dixon, who farms at Barden Moor, near Leyburn, name one of Kildale-based Peter Turbull’s Scottish Blackface flock champion hill sheep, pipping Kerry Hill breeder George Donlon, of Northallerton, to the title.

Celebrating being named reserve supreme champion and winning the champion longwool title with a Wensleydale ewe was Liam McPartland.

Having already bagged reserve interbreed champion at North Yorkshire County Show and champion Wensleydale at Otley Show with the ewe, he said: “We’ve only just begun! We’ve got Ripley, Nidderdale, Wensleydale and Masham – all the Wensleydale classes of the North. Then we’ve got the breed sale in September.”

The farm manager for Leeds-based Harrison Spinks said his passion for conserving the Wensleydale breed dovetailed with working for the only mattress and bed manufacturer that operates its own farms, including the 300-acre organic certified Hornington Manor near Tadcaster, to provide wool, hemp and flax

Mr McPartland said: "We’ve got 30 breeding pedigree Wensleydales, 80 breeding North of England mules, 10 Angorran goats and three alpacas and from this we call it the Harrison Spinks clip of wool. That goes into a select luxury mattress range of our choosing each year.”