Young blood to the fore in battle for coveted beef award
AFTER REACHING 160 years, you could be forgiven for thinking the Great Yorkshire Show would be an old man’s game.
But it was young blood leading the pack at one of the event’s premier livestock showcases yesterday.
Stockport-based farmer Tom Boden, 23, took the first place rosette in the coveted Supreme Beef Championship contest with his two-year-old Charolais, Maisie.
The 1,100 kg breeding cow, which is part of the Sportsman’s herd, just pipped a Limousin, Grahams Melody entered by Drew Hyslop from Stirling, at the Beef Rings in the afternoon.
Maisie, which is owned by Mr Boden’s father Charlie, was a junior champion at the Royal Welsh Show last year.
But Mr Boden, who has never triumphed in an interbreed competition at this event, knows what is means to win at the Great Yorkshire Show – and says there is nothing bigger.
“I’ve won most of the shows, but I’ve never won here, I’ve never won the interbreed here.
“It’s a massive achievement,” he added.
“It will be remembered for years.”
He acknowledges his youth, but again says he has taken part in many shows, attending the Harrogate event for a number of years.
“I think if you are brought up around it there are a lot of people who are interested, but it’s a hard thing to get into.”
Asked what the biggest challenge was, he said: “To win the interbreed at the Great Yorkshire Show.”
Judge Vicky Smith, from Devon, said that the cow was “perhaps looking a little bit fresher today” than the second-place animal.
Maisie is a breeding heifer which will be used for taking embryos from, said Mr Boden.
Her half-brother has also won a championship at Carlisle, he added, and her father was sold for £70,000.
Mr Boden and his family have around 50 breeding cows at their 600-acre farm in Cheshire.
Charlie Boden made headlines in 2014 for owning what was thought to be the heaviest bull in Britain, the 7ft Barnsford Ferny, which weighed two tonnes.