Page 96 - Britich Blue Year Book 2023

BLUE SIRES KEY TO NORTH YORKSHIRE UPLAND FARM’S
SUCCESS IN BREEDING SHOW POTENTIAL CALVES
After 10 years of Higher Level Stewardship payments ceased abruptly due to the scheme’s new no heather-burning
policies conflicting with the interests of a grouse shoot on their tenanted upland farm, Mark and Fee Ewbank looked
to another way of boosting whole farm income.
That was five years ago when a small nucleus of pedigree
British Blues was established on the 1,500 acre Intake
Farm near Middlesmoor in Nidderdale, with the aim of
running them alongside the 30 commercial suckler cows,and
using Blue bulls rotationally on the commercial cows to
produce superior show potential calves for selling on.
If recent successes at calf shows and sales are anything to
go by, the strategy is going some considerable way to
making up for HLS payment foregone, and Intake-bred
calves have sold for good money to buyers from
Aberdeenshire down to Kent and plenty in between.
Says Mark: “My grandfather came to the farm in 1935 and
with a succession tenancy in place, it enabled me to
subsequently take over from my father in 2007. There have
always been cattle and sheep on the place, my grandfather
having brought Dairy Shorthorns here which were used as
sucklers. We did purchase a Blue bull at the time I took
over in preference to the Limousin as we liked the
conformation and quiet temperament, so many of the
commercial sucklers, which are largely black, do have
British Blue blood in them. However, it was 2019 before
we decided to establish a pedigree Blue herd and bought
our foundation heifers from Geoff and Margaret Walker’s
Brennand herd.
“The first was Brennand Nightshade which had been
female champion and reserve supreme in the 2019
Carlisle sale where we bought her for 5,000gns. She is by
Kubitus De Bray and is from a line of show winning
females. She bred ‘Moonlight’, a Limousin cross heifer
which we sold to Ayrshire’s James Nesbitt for £6,200 in
the March 2022 Pateley Bridge Show Potentials sale, and
she went on to take the LiveScot championship that
November in the hands of the Nesbitts.
“Our second Brennand heifer was the black and white
Nightcap by Tenace De La Praule. Apart from a £2,500
Limousin steer out of her which we sold in Pateley Bridge,
she also bred Intake Stella by Tweeddale Hebony which
then became our first pedigree sale when we sold her
privately from home. We only have limited cattle
accommodation here so apart from selling show potential
cross-breds, we do also intend to sell some pedigrees and
maintain a comparatively small pure-bred herd which is
one reason for maintaining the SAC High Health status.
We are also in a TB4 area here.”
This year, the Ewbanks had the male champion steer in the
Pateley Bridge February sale where it made £3,500 and
had second and third prize heifers making £3,300 and
£2,700 respectively.
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Fee and Mark Ewbank
Intake Farm (middle) with permanent pasture in the foreground where the cattle are summered and
fells in the background where Swaledales graze.