Thornton-le-Dale Show: Helping out, without showing

When it comes to helping run an agricultural show you don’t have to be someone who shows livestock, and it probably helps if you’re not that way inclined, as you’re then likely to be pulled in every direction. Gena Douglas of Wray House Farm, Marishes is just that.

Gena farms with husband Mick and sons John and William and says theirs is very much an arable and cattle commercial farming operation with little time, if any, to prepare and show cattle for their local show, Thornton le Dale Show, that takes place on Wednesday this week (August 5).

Thornton-le-Dale Show is a beautifully set agricultural show on Maltongate in the heart of the village that punches well above its weight and Gena has played her part in the show’s success over many years from being a young girl.

‘We’d go to the old showfield in front of what was the Hall Hotel. In those days it was held in a tiny little field. I remember the coconut shy and the ponies in the ring. It was such a small scale to what we are now. I grew up in Wilton and my dad used to work for a dairy farmer.

‘I’m one of the long-standing ones. I got brought into being more involved with the show when a lovely lady who did the membership role approached me thirty years ago. I then took on sponsorship and currently I have those roles plus advertising, although one of our other members, Mike Chatten is now taking on responsibility for sponsorship.

‘Village shows are about the local community and ours that includes all of the neighbouring villages and countryside is always keen to support. Every penny is important to a show like ours. I’ve visited all around the area collecting even just a fiver because it is being given in memory of grandparents, that’s what people think of keeping their village show. What I cherish is that, while the show has grown we are still linked to our local community.

Gena says that a lot of the show’s growth which now sees an attendance of around 10,000-12,000 can be attributed to the hard work of someone who became Thornton le Dale Show to many and has been at the helm for many years until this year.

‘We need to offer a huge thank you to Martin Blythe, our previous chairman, for his tireless efforts. Martin was largely the one who built the show into what it has become.

The Douglas family first started farming in the area when Mick’s grandfather Francis Douglas took on the tenancy of Rise Carr Farm. Wray House Farm followed, also on tenancy and purchase of both followed in the 50s.

‘Frederick William Douglas, Mick’s father, took over the farm and made the purchases. He passed away in January at the grand old age of 94,’ says Gena.

‘Today, the farm is largely run by Mick, myself and John, who lives in the cottage next door at Wray House Farm with his partner Sarah; William works for land agents Savills during the week then comes back from his ‘posh job’ with shirt and tie and puts his boiler suit on. He and his wife Lucinda live at Rise Carr Farm. We employ three local young folk full-time and one self-employed chap.

‘John was always going to farm and it was when we were considering going totally arable that it was he who said ‘absolutely no way, we keep the cattle’. It has proved really good.

‘I met Mick in the 70s. He came silaging to Wilton where I was growing up. I asked Ken Lunn, Mick’s uncle ‘who’s that chap?’. We got married in1981 and moved into Rise Carr Farm. We came down here to Wray House Farm 27 years ago.

Gena says they farm across around 900 acres and also contract farm 300 acres, and they have a ‘reasonable number of cattle’ on at any one time, all bought as strong stores for finishing.

‘Our largest cereal crop is 173 acres of winter wheat, this year using varieties Arnie and Typhoon; closely followed by 157 acres winter barleys Inys and Quantock which we’ve just finished with a very healthy 4.5 and 4 tonnes per acre. Those figures are straight from our Fendt tracked combine. We’ve 104 acres oilseed rape; 85 of spring oats; 89 rye; and 100 acres of maize on rented land. We feed all the barley and rye to the cattle.

We are also in the SFI scheme and have 257 acres of herbal leys.

‘We’re down in Ryedale’s valley bottom. We’ve got quite a lot of clay and heavy stuff as well as some lighter stuff. Our land can hold the moisture. We’ve also embraced direct drilling and haven’t ploughed for the last twenty years.

It’s another early harvest for most, thanks to the hot weather, but Gena also attributes the addition of the anaerobic digester to the farm ten years ago as another plus, along with two wind turbines.

‘It gives us those nutrients back and an added bonus is we have saved on buying as much fertiliser. We’d been told that our cattle operation meant we’d be ideal and so we let the company that approached us build their plant and we rent them the site. We feed it with 30 tonnes morning and night which produces electricity and goes into the grid and we are powering roughly a quarter of Thornton-le-Dale. Our wind turbines mean we are totally energy sufficient.

Mick is the cattle buyer and seller. He goes to United Auctions at Stirling each week and local markets in York and Malton. Gena explains how meticulous they are over every aspect of the beef trade.

‘We get them at 15-18 months old and we keep them between three to four months. They largely go into Dunbia in Sawley near Clitheroe, but we like to send some fat into local auctions if we have what we think will make a butchers’ special heifer.

‘Every animal is weighed as it arrives, we then fit a management tag. We scan everything, it’s a bit like being at a supermarket when we’re scanning them all on. We also have a new member of staff who is brilliant at sorting the cattle and getting the paperwork right.

‘When we come to sort them, they are sorted if the right shape or grade to go. We look through every pen. Every animal is then put through the crush and all tags checked and finishing weight recorded. We want them going out at 650-700 kilos.

‘They are on a mix from the diet feeder so we know exactly what we’re feeding them. It includes barley, silage, oats and a little bit of rye. We’ve got our own mill so we can mill everything we need. Minerals include a methane inhibitor to reduce emissions. We also feed waste McCain’s oven chips to the cattle sometimes.

‘Breed wise we like some Angus, Limousin-crosses, Charolais, Simmental but most importantly they’ve got to be the right shape and look well. We pride ourselves on having flipping good cattle. Maybe we should show at Thornton-le-Dale Show, but we just don’t have the time.