Farm of the Week: Brotherly love for the land delivers on quality in North Yorkshire

They’re both still in their 20s and have their father on hand. Parents Martin and Valerie are the directors of the farm business.

“We’re fortunate to have dad around always asking questions and keeping us on track but we’re also good at thinking outside of the box and are excited about how new technologies can be factored into how we farm.”

Will is involved in ‘aerial ag mapping’ using drones that provide a remote sensing service so that weeds in fields can be identified, which then means maps can be created that allow a sprayer to programme where attention is needed. It’s a business he’s developing with independent agronomist Patrick Stephenson.

“It’s about a better understanding of the agronomic factors and providing advice that leads to a better yield for all farmers.”

Will is also responsible for the farm’s 1,000 acres of combinable crops that sees half down to winter wheat varieties Revelation, Beluga and Invicta, averaging 4.5 tonnes per acre last year on Grade 3 land of medium to heavy clay and producing Group 3 and 4 feed wheat. They’ve used a mintill based system since 1995 and presently have a Plowman’s Omnitill and Fendt 724 and 936 tractors as their frontline fleet.

“At harvest we’re now using a Claas Tucano combine. We wanted a bit harder threshing to help increase the throughput.”

While the wheat price hasn’t been great recently Will is watching the world situation and believes events abroad may offer more promise this year.

“One man’s loss is another man’s gain and the weather in Russia and the Ukraine could fall in our favour if it continues as predicted.”

Will is looking for a replacement to oilseed rape that is grown across a quarter of the combinable acreage, but hasn’t found one that will suit their land. Winter rye is being grown this year for the first time and on contract for Ryvita. Spring feed barley is also grown and averaged 4.1 tons per acre last year.

The welfare of the 1,800 B&B pigs that come to the farm is another of Will’s tasks. They come in at 40kg and are taken through to bacon. It sees them with around four batches a year.

Robert is focused on producing quality cattle and sheep. The brothers have set up a new arrangement to supply butcher Anthony Kitson’s shops in Northllerton and Stockton in addition to their regular consignments for Dawn Meats.

“He’s a very good traditional butcher who wants only the best in his shops. We are now buying cattle with Anthony in mind from areas such as Barnard Castle, Middleton in Teesdale and Leyburn. We’re after something like a Limousin X with a bit of Belgian Blue in it, but it can be anything so long as it’s right.”

Cattle numbers at Scorton run to around 150 head of stock, but Robert also has a herd of 25 Simmental suckler cows.

“They calve in March and spend the summer grazing on a hill farm that we rent in Wensleydale. The Simmental cow is a quiet, milky animal that’s never any hassle and I’m aiming to grow the herd so I’m keeping the heifer calves. We started with an in-calf cow with a calf at foot from the Scarthingwell herd a few years ago and we bought our bull from Stirling when Lucy and I were on honeymoon in Scotland.”

Various flocks make up the sheep operation with 1,400 ewes set to lamb during March and April.

“We start this weekend with 250 pure Beltex, Texel and Dutch Texel ewes and a few Suffolks and Charollais. Half of the Texels are bred pure back to the Texel tup; all of the Beltex are put back to the Beltex tup; and the Dutch Texels back to the Dutch Texel tup. The aim is to keep all of them as pure as possible. The pure Suffolks and Charollais all go to the Beltex tup to breed quality crossbred tups. We keep 60-70 females a year as replacements and sell Beltex breeding stock at the breed sales in Carlisle, Skipton and Kendal. The Texel and crossbred tups are sold at Kendal, Bentham, Carlisle and Leyburn.

“Next up after the pures is the main flock of 600 three-quarter bred Texel ewes that go to the Beltex tup to produce fat lambs. They are followed by just over 200 Beltex X Texel hoggs that are then sold at Skipton in May with lambs at foot. The last lambing flock is 300-400 seven-eighth bred Beltex ewes that are put back to the Beltex tup. We’ve tried other tups but favour the Beltex for carcase quality. Others moan about it not growing quickly enough but we’ve never found that at all.”

Robert is looking to run their first ever on-farm tup sale during summer/autumn 2017 along with breeding gimmer shearlings.

“Ours will be different. We know that some buyers complain that once they’ve taken a tup home it melts because of the feed it has had before the sale to make it look good, so we’re going to have 100 homebred shearling tups to sell and we’re going to give farmers the choice because half will have had some feed before the sale and half will never have seen a bag of feed.”

Whole farm contracting is another of the brothers’ ideas.

“A lot of whole farm contractors only want the arable side, but because of our knowledge and experience of arable and livestock we can offer real whole farm contracting to mixed farms,” says Will.

Will is also using digestate from an anaerobic digester plant at Newton Aycliffe. “It’s a nutrient rich form of slurry that we apply to the crops in the spring using an umbilical system and it saves on bagged fertiliser costs adding the organic matter we’re looking for.”