Forget tupping time, lambing percentages, crop yields and butterfat levels. The new buzz words in the farming world are bounce rate, raw footage, blogging and Google cheques.

Or at least that's how life is panning out down on the farm for youngbloods Stephen, Ian and Sara Ridsdale. Not that you would notice any difference on the 250-acre farmstead at Common Farm, Bielby, near Pocklington. Brothers Stephen and Ian are still farming in partnership with Terry, their dad, and are the third generation to lived here since their grandfather, Hugo, purchased the farm in 1960, leaving behind the butchery businesses he ran in York.

"He bought it because my dad wanted to be a farmer. So they sold the butcher's shops and came here. The farm was originally 110 acres, but six years later they bought another 100 acres. That was how farming was in those days. In a short time you could just double the size of your farm."

The Ridsdales have no immediate intention of expanding their farm, in acreage terms, today. But their growing of wheat, barley, oilseed rape, fodder beet and cattle, as well as a variety of smaller livestock has been augmented by the growing of a new "field".

They have harnessed the power of information technology, and in just 10 months have created a business, or rather two businesses, that are already making up 10 per cent of the farm's annual turnover – and with hardly any additional costs.

The catalyst for this change was when Stephen attended a computer course run by Yorkshire Forward.

"The idea of the course was to make money out of it, for people like us to diversify. It was absolutely superb, especially for farmers who might not be in an ideal position for a holiday cottage or business park.

"The people who ran the course showed us different ways of making money. After all, if you're a beef farmer you might go into things thinking that you will simply sell your beef on line, but we were encouraged to think differently to that. So we came up with a knowledge-based product."

Not only did they do that, they also came up with another, and there are more to follow. Husband and wife Stephen and Sara now have their own individual websites. They are both earning money from them and they are in competition with each other, although in a friendly way.

"We said we would have a competition to see who could make the most money – and I think I'm winning," Stephen says with a smile. Sara agrees that Stephen may well be in the lead financially, but her site has also led to a TV appearance.

One of their two websites, Vintage Tractor Engineer, is all about maintaining old tractors, and currently features the Massey Ferguson 35. This is where Ian comes in to his own. He already runs a successful air conditioning and refrigeration engineering business – and has recently been taken on by Keenan to maintain their diet feeders.

He's not simply the "engineer" of the website's title, he is also the star of what has become a lucrative DVD business, where the filming side is handled by brother Stephen. "The site itself has a lot of information on how to repair the Massey Ferguson 35, which is one of the most popular of the classic models," says Stephen. "We utilise Ian's expertise and people ask questions. We provide the answers."

Those clicking on to the website invariably have a thirst for knowledge which cannot be quenched simply by a typewritten answer. They want to know more – and that's where the DVDs come in. Stephen also now gets a monthly cheque from Google, who pay to put advertisements on to
his website.

"For every time someone clicks on to one of the ads, we receive a payment. With that and the DVD sales, we're finding it a useful additional income."

Sara's website is somewhat different. It's not about a specific area of farming, instead it is more of a weblog, or blog. "I talk about farming-related matters and add to it daily. I put on video clips of things like the final sugar beet harvest on the farm, a Charolais cow calving and a guinea fowl's call.

"The traffic on my site has been building up and I've had over 20,000 visitors since I started. I talk about the animals and people ask questions. I'm getting a lot of questions about poultry."

That's not surprising – Sara has pigs, guinea fowl and quail on the farm, in addition to the cattle.

"I'm now getting a monthly cheque from Google, too. I'm not getting as much revenue as Stephen but I'm getting more traffic."

Sara, who is from Aldbrough originally, used to teach at a school in Pocklington but gave up at Easter. She now has quite a bit of work on her hands both on the farm and on the keyboard. "We have a few pigs – two Saddleback sows, and we're on to the third litter. I sell weaners to smallholders and via the Farming Friends website. I've also quite a big flock of guinea fowl, and quail which I'm selling to local farm shops and restaurants."

Practical information about keeping quail is generally quite sparse and Sara is finding this is proving another strong interest on her site. "I produce little recipes and recipe cards so people know what to do with them, and I've just been filmed on Ready Steady Cook, which will go out sometime this autumn."

Stephen and Sara talk about "bounce rates", where people click off your site, and of people from America emailing them to purchase some of the footage they have filmed on their farm, as if it was the most natural thing to do.

But they haven't given up on farming, which is just as well, as that is providing the material for their sites.

"We like farming. Some have expanded by buying land but we've gone a different way by sticking with what we have and looking at other things," says Stephen.

"The beauty of what we have done lately is that there is no financial outlay. I spend about an hour and a half each day on the website. At a time when farming can be so up and down, our traffic is going up all the time.

"You know our family has been farming here for 50 years, and yet doing this for just the past six months, it is already forming 10 per cent of our overall revenue. We're no longer just working locally, we're thinking globally."

The Ridsdales' websites are www.vintage tractorengineer.com and www.farmingfriends.com.