Bentley Fields

The Spencer family has been farming at Bentley Fields since 1880.

The farm, 250 acres, is in the middle of Derbyshire, just south of the southern tip of the Pennine Chain, hills which run to the north of the country.

He and his wife took over in 1983. 

At the age of four, Rich was bottle feeding lambs; at ten, due to his father's ill health, he lambed 100 ewes during the Easter school holidays.

Following country, and then grammar school, he then went on to the University of Reading where he studied Agriculture.

Married at 22 , and due to a very tolerant partner in life, Rosemary, Rich is still happily married. His hobbies include, but are not limited to: reading , rock ‘n roll, tropical fish, rugby , amateur dramatics, and gardening.

Mr. Spencer is an active member of the National Farmer's Union and Regional Chairman for British Wool.

He and Rosemary have two children, Simon, who lives next door with his wife, Alison, and sons Oliver and Ed, and Katrina who resides in New Zealand with her partner Andrew and son, William. Simon is a group secretary in the National Farmer’s Union, and helps run the farm as, and when, time permits, as do his two lads, particularly Oliver, who has his own flock at the age of 15.

The farm was mixed, containing a dairy herd of Holsteins, plus sheep, until he and Rosemary sold the herd in 2009 due to Rich’s health issues. Since then they have concentrated solely on sheep. In the 1980s, they had opened the farm up to the public, which they continued to do until 2000. As a consequence, they had a veritable “Noah's Ark” of livestock, which included a large variety of rare breeds of sheep.

“All of this was very interesting until it came to breeding time! Fifteen different groups of sheep breeding pure? A nightmare. At the time, we had the country’s largest flock of Shropshires. 

Now? Easy life! A commercial flock based, rightly or wrongly, on the Lleyn breed, and crossing with Bleu de Maine for females, and then Meatlinc and Charolais as terminal sires.

We have retained a small flock of Shropshires as well, and are hoping to pass the farm on to the next generation. Quite a challenge under the present government!”

With his extensive knowledge concerning so many breeds of sheep and lifelong shepherding experience, we cannot wait to welcome Mr. Richard Spencer to the NAHSS to judge.

GANOL Flock, Sennybridge, Rhondda Cynon Taff, United Kingdom

Mr. Steven Forsyth runs the GANOL flock of Black Welsh Mountain sheep in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales. He has kept the BWM’S for 30 years. In 2024 he won the National Flock Competition in the UK, which was open to all of its members. Steven has judged all three of the Royal shows with the BWMs in consecutive years: the Royal Welsh Show, the Royal Three Counties Show, and the Royal Bath and West Show. He has also judged numerous shows in Wales and England, as well as at the breed society show and sales in the UK. He has also sold his BWMs all over the UK and once held the breeds highest priced male .

While at the NAHSS, he will be giving a presentation on the status of the sheep industry in the UK, and especially concerning the Black Welsh Mountain breed.

Another breed Mr. Forsyth has kept for his family, namely his daughter, is the Shetland sheep breed. His daughter has used Shetlands in many art projects in university.

In Wales, Steven does quite a bit of rural craft work during winter time, mainly the ancient craft of Hedge Laying, which he does across South Wales and into the border counties of England as well. In 1994, Steven and his friend attempted the World Hedge Laying Record, which they beat and is still standing after 30 years in the Guinness Book of Records today.

Steven has also diversified in to pumpkin and tulip patches, which are open to the public.

“I am very honoured to have been asked to judge the Black Welsh Mountains and Shetlands at this years show, and look forward to meeting the exhibitors and their sheep.”

Eallagro Blackface

Isle of Lewis, Scotland

A crofter from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Mr. Williamson has recently been in the spotlight due to his part in rescuing Fiona, The Loneliest Sheep in the World, as well as his role in this year’s BBC series This Farming Life.

His farm, Eallagro Blackface, has also done very well at the recent shows and sales on the mainland with their Lanark-type Scottish Blackface.

This year’s Scottish Blackface judge, we are excited to have Ally over to hear what he has to say about the flocks across the pond.

“I am truly humbled at being asked…Thank you for this incredible offer to come to judge what looks to be an incredible event, a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

TBA

Who is going to judge one of the largest classes this year?

Check back for updates, we can’t wait to share this year’s NCC judge with you!

Mr. Wayne Hutchinson

Meet our official photographer for 2026, Mr. Wayne Hutchinson!

Here’s a little bit about Mr. Hutchinson from his website:

“Since establishing Hutchinson Photography in 1994, Wayne Hutchinson has seen his business grow rapidly, and with growing acclaim. He is now recognised as one of the leading Agricultural and livestock photographers in the country, winning the Guild of Agricultural Journalists photographic competition 3 times in total, including his first time of entering in 2000 and in 2009 where he won all four categories as well as being runner up several times too.

One of the specialist areas Wayne covers is pedigree Livestock both at sales and shows throughout the UK, taking the official photographs for many breed societies including the Shorthorn and British Blue cattle as well as Swaledale, Bluefaced Leicester, Cheviot and Beltex sheep. Assignments are undertaken around the UK for clients who need high quality images for their use. We now offer a video service, using the expertise of Sam Hutchinson of Youtube fame, "The Swaley Man"

Brought up on a Cumbrian Hill Farm, agriculture is not just an industry to take photographs of, it is a passion. He breeds Swaledale sheep, with some degree of success and trains and breeds sheepdogs, both of which many photographs are taken, including many in the gallery sections on here. The advantage of have such an interest in agriculture shows itself in the quality of the photographs, where it is not just important to get a picture of a subject, but important to get the BEST picture possible, to show the stock at its best.

Keeping pace with modern technology, Wayne bought his first Digital SLR in 2000, a Nikon D1, and has kept up with the latest Nikon Dslr technology currently using a Nikon Z9 and D5, with top of the range Nikkor lenses for the highest quality images. Images can be provided to clients within minutes of being taken if needed.

Wayne’s client list keeps increasing and includes the likes of; Cargills, Genus, Cogent, Rumenco, Downland, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Farmers Weekly, Farmers Guardian, Harrison & Hetherington, Scottish Farmer, Johnson & Johnson, Sheep Farmer, I'Ansons, Carrs Billington and National Geographic. Sales are also achieved through various agencies including specialist Frank Lane Picture Agency (FLPA) in the UK and Design Pix in the United States as well as the general online library ALAMY, which has seen images sold all over the world and appear on TV programs too.

Recently Wayne has been working for a British Charity, Send a Cow, taking photographs of their projects in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, providing stunning images of African agriculture that they are using in their promotional material. This is an ongoing project and will hopefully see more work in the future. We have over the last few years supplied RABI images for their calendar, with our images being on the front cover several times.

In 2008 Wayne appeared on TV in Dales Diaries with Luke Casey and also featured in a Radio 4 program, Lives in the Landscapes, which followed him around for several days meeting people in the agricultural industry.

He is based in the Wensleydale market town of Hawes in the heart of the beautiful Yorkshire Dales National Park.”

We cannot wait to see what moments Mr. Hutchinson will be able to capture at this year’s NAHSS.

A very large “Thank You” to Rafter Rocking L Farm, a farm based in Arizona, that has been so generous to sponsor this year’s photographers as a gift to all of their fellow exhibitors!

https://waynehutchinson.photodeck.com/

https://www.facebook.com/wayne.hutchinson.photography