BEEF farmers can visit three leading beef and sheep farms on the eve of the National Beef Association's Beef Expo 2007.

The event is at Skipton auction mart, in North Yorkshire, on Thursday, May 17. Coaches for the farm tour will leave there on the morning of Wednesday, May 16, returning for the pre-event conference at 4pm.

Bookings for the farm tour must be made, with the £11.75 per person cost - covering the coach, coffee and lunch - made payable to NBA Beef Expo, and sent to the organiser, Euan Emslie, Beef Expo 2007, 3 Briar Close, Newport, Brough, East Yorkshire, HU15 2QY.

Up to 300 delegates will be split into three groups for the visits to J C Crabtree and Son's 740-acre upland Bolton Park Farm, at Bolton Abbey.

It has a suckler herd of 150 mainly Aberdeen-Angus cross cows, previously crossed with limousin bulls but now with stabiliser, and a flock of 1,200 ewes.

The farm sells a growing proportion of beef and lamb from the farm direct to local restaurants and at three farmers' markets.

J A and J M Wade and Son of Royd House Farm, Cononley, Keighley, have a suckler herd of 200 limousin, Belgian blue and Gelbvieh cross cows crossed with Belgian blue, limousin and charolais bulls.

Heifers are sold as store through Skipton mart and bull calves kept entire and sold prime through Gisburn mart. The 500 acre farm also has 300 mule ewes.

Rowntree Farms of Windy Pike Farm, Gisburn, Clitheroe, have a herd of 150 Aberdeen-Angus cows founded on the high-lying LFA farm of 500 acres.

Pedigree bulls and females are sold for breeding, steers to Dovecote Park and some heifers slaughtered locally for sale as boxed beef.