Great Yorkshire Show

After the deluge from the first day at the show it was good to start the BFL classes in the dry weather. The numbers were down a bit on other years, but that didn’t stop the judge, John Stott, having his hands full in the classes and his winning pair went on to feature in the Interbreed Pairs on the Friday, showing the depth of the quality on show.

The classes were dominated by Graham Jackson, Lakeber, a relative new breeder within the society, but an old hand at turning out quality stock. He won four of the six open classes on offer and took the overall champion with his aged ewe, which he had bought out of Hawes as a gimmer hogg. She was the res Interbreed Champion at Penrith on her only other show outing, and caught the judge’s eye from the start, with her stamp and power. She has son by “Popeye” heading to the sales this back end.

The Reserve Champion on the day was a tup shearling from John Graham, Burnbank, with a homebred tup by the £5000 R2 Buckles tup they bought out of Hawes a few years back and out of M25 Cottage ewe. He is an immense tup and certainly looked the part and later went on to win the pairs with a gimmer, which stood third in its class. This was also by the Buckles tup out of a D15 Smearsett ewe. This pair went on to claim the Res Overall Interbreed Pair.

The Lakeber flock went on to dominate, taking the first prize in the old tup class, with a Hewgill bred tup, bought privately last back end off Robin Booth. This was its first time out in the show ring. They also won the tup lamb class with a son of the Hewgill tup. This was out a ewe bred by Anders Brown. It took the Reserve Male championship. The gimmer shearling class was won by the Lakeber flock too, with a gimmer hogg they bought out of Carlisle this spring, where it was the sale champion. This beauty was by the £40,000 Midlock Commander.

Taking the first prize in the gimmer lamb class was Claire Burrow, showing for the very first time, with a very sharp, April born lamb.