SOUTHWAITE father and daughter Coloured Ryeland sheep breeding team Malcolm Hoggarth and Joanne Fisher have chalked up show successes with their aged tup, Stardust Xanthos.

In light of the fact that agricultural shows were cancelled this year, the pair entered the virtual Skelton Show where their aged tup won the Coloured Ryeland class.

Joanne then entered 'The Online Sheep Show' and won the breed champion out of 164 entries, and then went on to win the Down breed section championship.

The father-and-daughter are no strangers to show success with their 75-strong 'Greenlea' flock, which they have built up gradually from four ewes they bought in 2013, and a further two that autumn, including a tup lamb from the northern RFBS, which is part of the Harrison & Hetherington rare breed sale at Borderway Mart in Carlisle.

A delighted Joanne said: "The coloured ryelands are a friendly, docile, british breed being ideal sheep for us when we were new to keeping sheep of our own.

"They're really easy to look after, excellent mothers, rarely suffer foot problems and not only produce excellent quality meat they also produce high quality wool which I sell privately to hand spinners and felters."

Joanne started showing locally in the Native sheep class and then went further afield to be in the Coloured Ryeland section classes.

"We'd usually have been to the Spring Festival, Stafford, Royal Three Counties, the Great Yorkshire Show and many local shows as our main outings this year but they've all been cancelled so I reverted to trying the online shows with success at Skelton and even better at The Online Sheep Show with a huge section of 164 sheep!," said Joanne.