Northern Farmer Awards 2024: Sheep 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, February 22, and in the run-up to the big day, we 're publishing mini-profiles of all our finalists.

Also to be revealed on the night will be the overall 2024 Northern Farmer of the Year, chosen by the panel of judges from the winners of the ten categories.

Sheep Farmer of the Year, sponsored by Harper Adams University.

Nicola and Nigel Foster, Birch Bush Farm, Forest-in-Teesdale.

Birch Bush Farm at Ettersgill, Forest-in-Teesdale, just above High Force, is a tenanted property owned by Raby Estate which runs up to 1,450ft above sea level.

The farm has 125 acres and the Fosters rent a further 70 acres of good grazing ground near Barnard Castle. They farm mainly sheep but also have a small beef herd.

Nicola does most of the day-to-day work at home while Nigel works on a nearby dairy and sheep farm four days a week. Nicola also works part time at Middleton in Teesdale Mart as a field person.

Their Swaledale flock of about 220 ewes is bred pure, lambing outside in mid to late April. They scan at about 180 per cent with the majority of gimmers not being kept as replacements sold in the autumn through Middleton in Teesdale Mart. Wether lambs are either sold off farm as stores or kept to be fattened at home before going through Middleton in Teesdale Mart.

Swaledale shearling rams are sold at Middleton-in-Teesdale and Kirkby Stephen and then breeding rams are bought either at Middleton, Kirkby Stephen or Hawes. They also run 100 Texel cross ewes and have had Dutch Spotted sheep on-farm since 2020. “We just fell in love with them,” says Nicola, who is secretary of Langdon Beck Sheep Show.

The Fosters have established the Outberry pedigree flock numbering 20 registered females and two registered tups.

Wool is sold through Laurence Pierce, with Nicola keen to source other outlets for her ‘spotty’ wool.

Read more: Finalists revealed for 2024 Northern Farmer Awards as countdown begins

James Burns, of New Brotton, Saltburn.

James (Jim Bob), who has always been very studious, lost his grandma when he was six years old. It was her dream to have a farm and the boys spent most of their time in a touring caravan parked on a friend’s farm where the family kept some sheep until they eventually got lucky at Shepherds House Farm in New Brotton, Saltburn.

James studied at Askham Bryan for an apprenticeship and degree, and learnt the hard way from his grandad who taught him the old methods, straightening nails and staples, mucking sheds out by hand and lifting and stacking bales in the smallest of spaces. He is now a top upcycler.

James spent a year in New Zealand working on two farms, and has also worked in Northampton and Wales shepherding. He currently works for a local farm most days which helps to support him financially as well as with his goals of working with stock and getting his own place.

He started with a few young calves and Swales but his passion is the Blackface. James has 250 ewes – pure Blackface, Swales, Cheviots, Cheviot cross, mules and Texel cross. He breeds pure Blackface, mules and commercial lambs, has two working dogs, and will only buy well-bred quality stock. James runs about 80 acres of summer and winter grazing, all rented private land.

James is working with a friend on a breeding project, and has been keen on getting his grandad into schemes such as Ryevitalise with the North York Moors National Park Authority. The project is a landscape partnership of communities, volunteers and farmers looking to conserve the natural heritage of the River Rye and its tributaries.

Simon Stott, of Laund Farm, Preston.

Simon Stott’s farm in the Forest of Bowland covers about 500 acres and is a mixture of intensive grassland, rush pasture and upland pasture which supports 500 dairy ewes, 1,000 Swaledale and Blue Faced Leicester ewes, and 40 head of suckler cows. Now run by the third generation, the family has been at Laund Farm since the 1930s.

Simon Stott follows a long family line of sheep producers. He is managing director of Sheep Milk UK and a partner in Laund Farm at Chipping in Lancashire, which is led by his father John. Together they breed pure Blue Faced Lei-cesters and use their own progeny on a Swaledale flock to produce the mule lamb. They sell around 400 mule lambs and 30 blue-faced Leicester rams a year.

Six days a week Simon milks 400 Friesland ewes and has spent the past 11 years building a sheep milk enterprise.

Simon set up his own farmer co-operative and now sells more than 600,000 litres of sheep milk a year from seven neighbouring sheep farms on contracts to 12 dairies across the north of England. The milk is largely made into cheese and sold through dairies, Waitrose and M&S, although the biggest proportion is sold to the US market.

The quality of the product is entirely dependent on the diet of the sheep, enormous attention to detail and intensive monitoring of the milk. Good grassland management enables the dairy flock to get more from grazed grass, which cuts feed costs in half.

Alongside liquid milk sales, the farm also produces cheese.