RICHARD Messenger lived his whole life at The Howes Farm near Calthwaite.
He attended Ivegill Primary School and Caldew Secondary School. From a young age he was passionate about farming and keen to help his parents, Will and Meg, on the family farm.
Throughout his teenage years Richard was an active and enthusiastic member of Raughton Head Young Farmers, where he made many lifelong friends. Fiercely proud of his farming roots, he loved representing the club at events and competitions.
He fully embraced the social side of Young Farmers and could keep the party going long after most had called it a night!
Richard met the love of his life, Elisabeth, in 2003 – she shared his fun-loving attitude and sociable nature. They loved spending time with their many friends and travelling. Together they created a warm and welcoming family home.
Richard was immensely proud of his children — Will (18), James (16), Emily (14), and Eddie (12). He was delighted that they all shared his love for the farm and he enjoyed having a tribe of helpers. He had a wonderful way of turning even the most ordinary jobs into something fun, often filling everyday tasks with laughter, stories, and a bit of mischief.
Richard enjoyed seeing the children follow in his footsteps competing for Raughton Head YFC, cheering them on in everything they did. The family were honoured to host two Young Farmers Field Days at Howes Farm, most recently in 2025 when all four children contributed to Raughton Head winning the team cup – a special day for everyone involved.
Richard was a progressive and astute businessman: understanding that the dairy market was changing, he worked hard to develop Howes Farm. He spent time farming in Western Australia as a young man and later travelled across the UK and Europe visiting farms, always eager to learn and explore new dairy practices. He was an active member of the Grassland Society and a long-time supporter of Dalston Show.
He developed a 470 head, block calving herd of cross-bred dairy cattle at Howes Farm, implementing a paddock grazing system and creating a healthier, lower-cost, high-yield herd which proved a real business success with enviably low costs of production. Richard cared passionately about the health and husbandry of the herd and about creating a more sustainable system, investing in renewable energies.
He won multiple industry awards including the First Milk Regenerative Farmer of the Year award in 2025 and the Grassland Society Silage Cup in 2026.
Richard genuinely cared for his farm team, who loved working for him – and often teased him for his habit of bringing home ‘bargains’ from machinery auctions. He was grateful to everyone who worked and helped at The Howes, but especially thankful to Amy Wilson for keeping the farm running throughout his illness.
Richard was determined to approach MND with the same positive attitude that characterised his whole life: he threw himself into many adventures such as e-biking the coast-to-coast in a day and enjoying several precious family holidays.
The love and support Richard had shown to friends and the farming community was returned in abundance. More than £300,000 has been raised for MND in his name.
Raughton Head Young Farmers Club organised an epic ‘Many Miles for MND’ fundraiser in which members of the club ran, biked, and rowed 1,222 miles, the equivalent of John o’ Groats to Land’s End in a day. The club then planned and completed ‘Many Mountains for MND’ in which they conquered all 214 Wainwrights in 24 hours.
Other MND fundraisers included his dairy farming friends donating a percentage of their milk cheque each month, Crummock Bank Farm’s sunflower field, charity auctions at H&H Carlisle and Hopes Auction, a charity movie night at Rheged, Ralph Messenger’s vintage car drive from Land’s End to John o’ Groats and ‘Messy’s Moo’s,’ a herd of fancy dress cows completing the Rob Burrow’s Leed’s marathon, making the BBC news!
Richard was enormously grateful for the support shown to him by his community and humbled by all the fundraising events. He was thankful for the incredible care and empathy shown by the team at Caldbeck Doctors' Surgery. Above all he was proud of the strength, love and care his many wonderful friends, wife Elisabeth and children Will, James, Emily, and Eddie surrounded him with. They in turn felt it was an honour and privilege to look after him.
Richard bore his illness with great dignity. He left the world peacefully, at home, surrounded by his wife and children. While he will be deeply missed his legacy lives on through his family and the lasting impact he made on the local farming community.
HOWES FARM is a 470-autumn block calving herd. Built up of three main breeds – Holstein Friesian, Norwegian red and Fleckveih / Monty’s. Rolling yield for the herd is 9000L with 4000L coming from forage. Solids are running at butter fat 4.4 per cent and protein 3.4 per cent SCC 120 and Bactoscan 19.
They breed all the replacements themselves with this year having 150 in calf heifers and 170 followers. It is a paddock grazing system from April to October.
Richard was someone who loved a farm walk going to them and having them at Howes, from friends, breeding companies, and schools, not to mention taking the time last year for the farm to be used to host the Young Farmers’ field day.
Richard always focused on having a high health dairy herd and always maintained the highest animal husbandry standards. He was never afraid of making big decisions, such as the move to autumn block calving. He was passionate about creating an environment that worked for the cows, but also for the people who worked at Howes.
Richard had so many favourite phrases that will be forever remembered at Howes, the best one will have to be: “I’ve had a brain wave. No stop... it’s a double brain wave.’’ Richard always loved an online auction – if he wasn’t coming back with a stack of gates or a transport box he was buying many water tanks. Or he was taking Elizabeth away for a romantic weekend away with the flatbed trailer following to bring a snow plough back he had bought! He would never worry because he would just say ‘’it’s okay, it has potential, put it in the stores’’.
Richard built a very successful farm business, which is incredibly robust for the future.
Share