Farmers from Yorkshire who have built up a herd of top-quality pedigree Beef Shorthorn herd over many years have won a national award.

Geoff and Christopher Riby, who farm on the East coast at Fraisthorpe, have been recognised with the National Herd Award for 2024 for their Stonehills Beef Shorthorn herd.

The presentation was made during the recent Beef Shorthorn Development Day at the renowned Podehole herd in Cambridgeshire, where judges of the National Herd Award for 2024, Charles and Sally Horrell, along with their son Harry, welcomed more than 100 fellow breed enthusiasts.

The afternoon of events started with the attendance of HRH the Princess Royal, where she was welcomed by the Horrell family to the farm, which has been home to the Podehole herd since 1997 before joining guests to present this year’s National Herd Award to Geoff and wife Jackie.

Low Stonehills Farm near Bridlington has been home to Pedigree Beef Shorthorns for the last 20 years since Geoff decided to invest in the breed after previously milking cows.

“We decided to give Shorthorns a try as we were looking for a breed that could utilise permanent pastures that were part of stewardship schemes and were easy to manage,” says Geoff who today runs the business alongside his son, Chris.

At the beginning, Geoff purchased females from influential herds, including Westmoor, Upsall, Glenisla, Chapelton and Glengloy. Today, 60 Pedigree Beef Shorthorns are run at Stonehills alongside a herd of Lincoln Red, which are put to the Beef Shorthorn bull. The family also run a flock of pedigree Texel, Beltex and Polled Dorset sheep and have recently installed a vending machine near the local village where they sell homegrown Beef Shorthorn beef.

Sally Horrell said: “With such a range of management systems and availability of forage the judging was anything but straightforward. All the herds had stock to be proud of and they were a credit to the breed. Ultimately, it came down to where we would go to replenish our herd in the event we needed to restock and our champion herd had all the attributes we would be looking for.”

Geoff said: “We are thrilled to have won the National Herd Award for 2024. It’s always great to win a show or do well at a sale but usually it’s with one or two of your best animals. For the herds competition, you need a strong type and uniformity running through your entire herd and we are proud that this was recognised by Charles and Sally in our herd.

“It was a great privilege to be invited to Podehole to accept the award, which was presented by HRH the Princess Royal. The Development Day was a fantastic event, and it was great to see members from across the UK in attendance. Credit must be given to Charles, Sally, Harry and the rest of the team at Podehole who put a lot of hard work and dedication in to make it such a success.”

Established in 2022 during the society’s bicentenary celebrations, the award scheme sponsored by Pedigree Sales Online Livestock Auctions will be run over an initial three-year period.

Finalists for 2024 included the Fearn, Croft, Blackbrook, Stonehills, Hannington, Standfordpark and Danycraig herds, who were representing their respective regions from across the UK.