Northern Farmer Awards 2023: Beef Farmer of the Year finalists

The winners will be announced at a spectacular awards ceremony at Pavilions of Harrogate, the Great Yorkshire Showground, on Thursday, and every day in the run-up we are publishing mini-profiles of all our finalists.

Also to be revealed on the night will be the overall 2023 Northern Farmer of the Year, chosen by the panel of judges from the winners of the ten categories.

Finalists in Beef Farmer of the Year, sponsored by KW Feeds

KW Feeds

Park Farm, at Everingham, near York is 400 acres of owned land with a further rented 250 acres. There are 150 acres of permanent grazing and silage ground, 120 acres of winter wheat, 20 acres of winter barley, 15 acres of lucerne and eight acres of fodder beet.

A further 300 acres of maize is grown, most of which is sold for wholecrop to dairy farmers in the Skipton area.

The wheat is sold but the barley is kept for feeding and all the straw is retained for bedding. The majority of work is carried out between Tom Waring, his dad Jonathan and employed worker Chris Sowden. Tom and Chris also carry out a small amount of contracting, combining, baling and muck spreading.

Tom Waring of Park Farm

Tom came home to farm in 2016 after completing his degree in agriculture at Harper Adams. Herd numbers were increased from 30 to 95, with the emphasis placed on pedigree Limousin breeding and the high health status of the herd. The herd now numbers 95 cows, 15 of which are the pedigree Limousins, alongside a 140,000 bird broiler enterprise.

The Everpark herd was established 11 years ago, since when Jonathan and Tom have been building up the herd’s genetics. The pedigree Limousin bulls, including Wallingfen Pluto, which was bought at Carlisle in May 2021, now run with the commercial herd as well as the pedigree cows. Many heifers from the original females have been retained in the herd now and bulls off these are sold for breeding.

READ MORE: Northern Farmer Awards 2023, Young Farmer of the Year finalists

In May 2021 at the Carlisle sale, they topped 50,000gns with their first entry in a pedigree society sale. Everpark Partylight, their September 2019-born bull, was the show’s intermediate champion.

Northern Farmer Awards 2023

Andrew and Caroline Ivinson took on the tenancy of their first Lake District National Park farm, Beckside farm, Sandwick, in 2001 and began establishing their Beef Shorthorn herd the following year.

In 2007, when Andrew’s parents George and Dorothy decided to retire from farming, Andrew and Caroline decided to move to Ousby and rent Townhead Farm from his parents.

Andrew & Caroline Ivinson

At the foot of the Pennines in north Cumbria, the farm runs to 200 acres of enclosed land with the farm steading at 800ft and the land running to around 1,800ft, with a further 40 acres of land rented from a third party.

It is now two decades since they first established their pedigree Beef Shorthorn herd at Sandwick, which provided its prefix. They then moved to Ousby and now keep a beef herd and a hill sheep flock – currently calving around 40 pedigree Beef Shorthorns. They also took on the hefted flock of 300 Swaledales, half of which are bred pure and the remainder crossed with the Bluefaced Leicester.

Andrew and Caroline work the farm themselves with occasional help from their five children, four daughters – Rebecca, Heather, Katrina and Erika – and a son, Ewan. The girls now work away from the farm but are on hand at lambing time. Ewan who is now 21 works on another farm where he can indulge his interest in tractor and machinery work, though he is always on hand at home when needed.

The herd is mainly closed for health reasons and is in the Biobest HiHealth Herdcare scheme. It has been in Johne's risk level one since 2008 and BVD accredited since 2012.

READ MORE: Northern Farmer Awards 2023, Dairy Farmer of the Year finalists

Simon Hare farms with his father John and uncle at Trees House Farm and Dent House Farm, Brignall (which adjoin each other), near Barnard Castle in County Durham. The farms are 360 acres, all grass, with around 60 acres of hay and a further 70 acres of silage made for winter feed.

Simon grew up on the Organic and Pasture Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) certified farm. There is a beef suckler herd of about 100 beef shorthorn and 160 breeding sheep (mule ewes put to Texel tup).

Simon Hare

They used to be a dairy farm with a herd of 120 Holstein/Friesian cows. Simon became aware of grass-fed beef and its benefits around 2008. Changing to a grass fed system and not buying feed in made economic sense.

In 2010, they started farming organically and around this time he bought some Beef Shorthorn heifers to start producing their own grass-fed beef. When they went organic, Simon decided to put everything into grass so he could keep similar stock numbers. He wanted a breed that could be easily managed and finish off on just a grass. He slowly built up the suckler herd and reduced the milking herd until about 2016 when they stopped milking.

Simon married Stevie Coverdale whose parent operated neighbouring Cross Lanes Farm Shop, which brought about a very successful working relationship between the two businesses. Stevie now manages Cross Lanes.

They now have 100 breeding pedigree shorthorn cows that calve in April and May at two years old. All are certified ‘Pasture for Life’ and are fed no bought in feed. They are also fully organic.