How contracting gave Tony a long career in farming

Getting a foot on the farming ladder was Tony Cook's drive 50 years ago when he set up as an agricultural contractor. Half a century later what started with an old Fordson Major tractor bought for £275 is now an enterprise employing 80 and headed up by his son Vanston Cook.
Tony Cook, who is celebrating 50 years in business.  Picture: James HardsityTony Cook, who is celebrating 50 years in business.  Picture: James Hardsity
Tony Cook, who is celebrating 50 years in business. Picture: James Hardsity

The decades have proven to be quite an adventure for Tony who broke his neck playing rugby, climbed volcanoes and the world’s tallest mountains, cycled across India and walked deserts for charity.

Today, the Burstwick Country Store and Skirlaugh Garden & Aquatic Centre are holding family fun days to celebrate the milestone of having gone from slurry contracting the year England won the World Cup to owning a farm in Burton Pidsea and running various business operations from the two premises.

Tony had his sights set from the beginning.

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“I’d always wanted to farm since spending time at my auntie Barbara Wilkinson’s Corner Farm in Bielby near Pocklington.

“I went to Bishop Burton College when it was only in its third year and still get together for reunions, although we are dwindling in numbers a bit now.

“After finishing at Bishop I spent a year on a farm at Hunmanby milking 90 cows through an abreast parlour before moving on to Shuttleworth College in Bedfordshire where I studied for my National Diploma in Agriculture.”

Tony then took on a role as farm manager for Major Seed in Melbourne near Pocklington where he stayed two years.

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“It was 1966 that I thought it was time to get on the farming ladder. I felt my best route was through agricultural contracting. At the time farmers were going off straw systems and on to slurry systems so I bought a Camel slurry tanker for £500, a little pickup to get around and the Fordson Major.

“I moved to Billy Richardson’s farm at South Park where he let me have a base. We’d known each other at Bishop and his wife Gill was at college too. I was best man for their wedding.

“My first office was a chicken hut. I had some business cards printed and spent a week going around Holderness touting for trade.”

Within a year Tony had four tankers fully utilised during the main season and at its height he ran a dozen. He started selling new and second-hand slurry tankers as a sideline and performed particularly well with sales of Hull-made Weekes tankers.

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His second venture came after poultry man Ted Kirkwood of Rimswell asked him to clean his poultry sheds.

“Ted told me to stick a bag over my head, scrape it all out and then clean it. I couldn’t go out on a night because I absolutely stunk but it was a means to an end and did me no harm.”

Flail mowing became the next source of income. It was another example of how Tony has always leaned towards niche areas where there was little initial competition.

“I purposely never went into arable contracting such as ploughing, drilling and combining because everyone was trying that.

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“I managed to get a demo flail mowing around dykes at Newport Canal for Market Weighton Drainage Board and that saw our business really take off with work for various other drainage boards.

“It also showcased us so that we then received offers of work from many farmers, but that initial demo didn’t quite go as planned when, after completing six cuts along the dyke banks, the whole bloody lot, flail mower and tractor dropped into the drain. All you could do was laugh. I remember saying ‘it’s alright for the first six cuts!’ It was then that I realised the slowest forward speed of that tractor was too fast so Keith Richardson who is still with me today nearly 50 years on put a reduction gearbox in.”

It was the introduction of fencing in those early days that set the tone for today’s business, making up around three-quarters of Tony Cook Ltd’s annual turnover.

“I was looking to keep my eight men employed through winter. In the early 1970s a lot of big arable farms were starting to go on to beef on grass. It was when the continental beef breeds such as Limousin were making their mark. We started with all-purpose stock fencing but Vanston has taken us into industrial markets too and it now makes up the lion’s share of our trade.”

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Tony’s farming ambitions were met around 30 years ago when 56 acres came up for sale at Prospect Hill Farm in his home village of Burton Pidsea. He now has nearly double that acreage, all in a ring-fence through various further acquisitions.

He grows wheat, barley, oilseed rape and potatoes for local farmer Andrew Smales who has just opened a new fish and chip shop in Aldbrough.

“Gill and Billy Richardson’s grandsons look after the farm for me today. I’ve no plans to grow the farm any further unless land comes available next to me and you never know when that might happen.”

Vanston is now managing director of Tony Cook Ltd having worked, as his father did, at the coalface. He put up fences before building the business up. It now has 30 teams operating throughout the UK and for major clients such as Network Rail.