JEREMY Waind and his partner Marilyn Tate are frequent winners with their fat cattle at local agricultural shows. Over the past decade they have won numerous cups and awards around the country.

Jeremy and his twin brother Richard, the butcher we wrote about last week, are part of a family tradition that goes back 150 years. The Wainds have been in business as farmers and butchers in Kirbymoorside and Ryedale area for many generations. And, Wainds have been regular and successful exhibitors in local agricultural shows at least from the early 1800s.

When he was young, Jeremy worked in the family butchers' - and he still does, occasionally. But first love has always been livestock, breeding, rearing and fattening. So in the years since he bought River House Farm, he has been gradually increasing his livestock numbers.

At River House Farm, Jeremy and Marilyn run some 75 acres and they rent another 90 acres of grassland at Great Edstone.

Their farm is a beef and sheep unit on which they run a small single suckler unit with about 20 suckler cows from which they are trying to breed high class cattle for their show stock.

They also buy in around 200 continental heifers each year to fatten and sell through Richard's shop at Kirbymoorside or in the local markets. Each week they aim to sell some of these fat heifers in local markets where they always command good premiums. Most of the lambs are sold to his brother Richard for the shop and again the aim is to provide fat lambs for sale every week of the year.

Sheep are also in the livetock regime of Jeremy and Marilyn. The lambs are cross bred Texels and start off with spring lambs. The rest are fattened off grass with some trough feeding. However, in the wetter winter months, the fat lambs are finished in sheds, to make certain they are clean and dry when they presented for slaughter.

Their sheep, like their cattle, always command a premium because of their dependable quality. Their attention to detail and striving to always have premium quality livestock to sell is what makes the difference between profit and loss in today's markets.

The couple have an especially good feel for how to market their livestock because they both have part-time jobs at local cattle markets. Marilyn is part of the market team at Malton and Ripon; Jeremy works in the market at Ripon on Wednesdays and Selby on Fridays. Because of this, they both have a good understanding of the needs of the buyers who support our local markets. Production and sales are planned with this in mind.

Their heifers are bought in the north of England with the finished product firmly in mind. All are continental, with the emphasis on Belgium Blue or Limousin because these breeds regularly command the highest premiums in the fat markets. They buy many their heifers from Morley Brothers at Whitby.

I first met Jeremy and Marilyn when I was taking photos in the local shows. They seemed to be at most of the shows throughout the summer and were almost always in the prize money. Ten years ago, the Waind family gave a silver salver to the Ryedale Agriculture Society as a memorial to their father David and Jeremy and Marilyn determined to win it. That ambition was achieved this past season with a very good home-bred heifer. The highlight of the last show season was winning a championship with a heifer at the Birmingham fat stock show.

Over the past decade of showing, the two have had considerable successes, winning many prize cards and cups all over the country.

Farming and showing cattle are a passion and hobby for Jeremy as well as his business. He works at other jobs in order to maintain his farm and his livestock. The outside work is a day job, farming is a vocation for weekends and evenings. In today's difficult farming environment, this sort of workload is necessary for the smaller family farm to thrive. We wish Jeremy and Marilyn continued success on both the farm and the showfield.

Updated: 09:19 Thursday, February 08, 2001