Farm of the Week: Former Leeds Rhinos and Toronto Wolfpack coach back home on the family cattle and chicken farm

“I was born and brought up here and coming back, working alongside dad, had always been something I’d wanted to do. I had the best of times with Toronto Wolfpack, but when the club folded and with all the problems brought by Covid I had a decision to make and, after talking with my parents, Richard and Susan, and my wife Sarah, decided it was the right time. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to come back to where I love.

“I’d wanted to come back, especially when our kids had come along. Being on a farm and in the countryside is a great life when you’re young. I think back fondly to when I was growing up. Being a farmer also means you have the bonus of being your own boss, but I’ve found out the weather is your ultimate boss. This year’s back end has been an absolute nightmare. It started raining in October and has not stopped.

“Working alongside dad was another great thing to be able to do, and I felt like I was coming into it with a fresh pair of eyes from outside the industry and could offer something.

Linthwaite Farm has returned to being a mixed farm of arable and livestock. Chris says his side is very much the livestock.

“I’m the beef guy. I’m sure some of my rugby league pals will smile at that as I was a prop forward.

“The arable side of the farm has always been dad’s department. We have 100 acres ‘on the plough’. We grow wheat, barley and oilseed rape. We have contractors looking after that now, with dad overseeing.

“Dad had finished with cattle 15 years previously. He’d had Aberdeen Angus. I was keen to get cattle in and sell our own grass-fed beef direct to the public.

But it wasn’t cattle that came first when Chris came back to Linthwaite in 2020.

“We took on hens first. We have 150 layers that are certified free range in a couple of hen houses. They came early in 2021 and we’ve still got some of the original birds. My view is that if they are still laying and healthy, we keep hold of them.

“We are as resourceful as we can be. It has to be that way because we’re not a big farm. We make the most of everything we’ve got. Dad is the most resourceful man I know. He can fix things like The A Team used to do on telly, in his shed, with a few nuts and bolts and his welding machine. If it can be fixed, he’ll fix it. We don’t spend what we haven’t got.

“We get 130 eggs a day from our birds and I have started a local egg round in the village of Hemingfield, where myself and Sarah live with our kids Isla and Ashby, five minutes from the farm. I deliver early on a Friday morning, usually putting our eggs next to the milk on doorsteps. We also sell eggs at our farm gate at Linthwaite.

Before starting with cattle Chris tried his hand at pigs. It was all part of his wider vision.

“Getting a couple of pigs was my trial period before cattle. I raised them, sent them to a local abattoir, had them butchered and the meat returned in saleable condition. That was my first foray into selling meat direct to the public.

“I bought half a dozen Longhorn-cross cattle, also in 2021. We finished processing the last one last October. I learned the way I wanted to do it, grass feeding our cattle, sending stock to our local Bramall’s abattoir and carcases coming back to me, where I now do all the butchery, packing and delivery from the farm.

What Chris had also decided was that he wanted Dexter cattle.

“I got the Longhorns initially, because I hadn’t found the right Dexters, but in November 2021 I bought a small herd of pedigree Dexters from a farm in the Peak District. It included the best Dexter bull in the country at the time and cows with quality bloodlines.

“We currently have a herd of 31 Dexters with 9 Dexter breeding cattle, plus a couple of Lincoln Red-cross cows that I bought locally because they were at the right price. Everything goes to the Dexter bull, we calve from January to March, and the calves we’ve had look really good.

“I sent my first Dexter to the abattoir yesterday and it is back in my coldroom today. Dexters are slow maturing cattle, which helps with marbling and flavour, and this first one has gone at 32 months old. We’re aiming to have enough breeding stock to have one beast go for processing every month.

“Dexters are smaller than most breeds, which makes them easier to handle, but their biggest quality is that Dexter beef tastes absolutely outstanding. I undertook a lot of research beforehand. If you add everything together about what we do - grass-fed beef, that you can see in the field out there, butchered here and tasting great, it’s hopefully a winning combination.

Chris says that his priority with retailing the beef is selling online, along with a more traditional approach to customers picking up direct from the farm rather than a farm shop.

“I saw myself coming into farming to be a farmer, not a farm shop. I wanted it to be a farm like farms used to be where if you wanted something you could go and pick it up. At the moment I want to grow our online presence because I think that’s the future. We are probably a bit off the beaten track to have a farm shop as such but we will happily have customers come through prior arrangement. People can look on the website and order for either local delivery, collection on farm or we can post further afield as we are already doing.

The Linthwaite website features Chris, Sarah, Isla and Ashby all wearing the oxblood red Linthwaite sweatshirts.

“Even though we are a small farm our branding can still be strong,” says Chris. “Little things like that show that we are being professional.

Chris tells of another profession that has also recently started at Linthwaite.

“Sarah now has her own business as a wedding florist and works from what was the old dairy, when this farm had dairy cows.

It’s all a far cry from Chris’ days with Leeds Rhinos and Toronto Wolfpack but he’s enjoying it immensely while still getting his rugby league fix with Doncaster RLFC who have just been promoted.