Farm of the Week: Owners of Toft Gate Barn Farm Shop and Cafe taking all generations to the Nidderdale Show

“Do you know how difficult it is to get hold of little white coats for little people?” says Caroline. “We have all six of our grandchildren taking part in the young handlers’ classes. It’s going to be interesting to say the least. We might have a few meltdowns, and that’s not including mine!

Chris and Caroline have cattle and sheep on their 194-acre farm high up above what some refer to more simply as Pateley Show, which is nestled into the town in Bewerley Park where the River Nidd flows alongside the showground.

The couple have changed their farming systems over the years, have moved with the times in opening firstly what was more a farm café (Toft Gate Barn) and is now more farm shop than café, but still incorporating the former, and now run by their son Martin and his long-term partner and now fiancée Ellie – and both Chris and Martin have day jobs away from the farm.

“We still have cattle and sheep and Martin has pigs,” says Chris. “We have had a pedigree Limmie (Limousin) herd for a number of years, but we now also have a few Longhorns that we are AI-ing to keep breeding them pure, and we have just started moving into crossbreeding, using native breeds, by putting an Angus bull on to our Limmie cows to try and produce a better meat quality off grass. We don’t buy in a lot of feed, only some brewers grains and a few waste products.

“Caroline bought me two Longhorn heifers from the Blockleys’ herd for my 50th birthday seven years ago, then bought another when we are at the Great Yorkshire Show that same year. That’s how we started with them.

“We had more cows when my parents David and Doreen were here, and we used to rent a lot of ground, but now we just stick to what we have of our own and I have worked as an engineer in a sweet factory in Harrogate for a number of years. I am fortunate that I have very good, flexible and understanding employers.

Caroline has mainly Beulah sheep that she has tried crossing with Cheviots but says it hasn’t worked as she would have liked.

“We have a flock of 120 breeding sheep and I’m going back to pure Beulahs. They do a good job up here. It was a local farmer, Geoff Robinson, who told me they were what I needed up here. I like them because I wanted to be able to lamb them myself.

“All our calving and lambing is concentrated in one block, all in April,” says Chris. “That’s so that we can get calves and lambs straight out if the weather is kind. We’ve tried lambing outside but found there wasn’t enough daylight for us when we had to come to work. We now try to get everything out in the field within 24 hours of being born.

The other livestock operation is pigs. Martin currently has three Pietrain-cross-Large White sows that produce the litters for his own pork for the sausages that are for sale in the farm shop.

Chris and Caroline have constantly changed their farming operation in ways other than their livestock and Chris says there are areas they still need to give more consideration.

“We’re a grassland farm and have increased the acreage we are cutting. This year we cut 60 acres for our first cut and 22 acres for second cut. We’ve also moved away from using any artificial fertiliser. We are not doing too bad to get two cuts here at the top of Greenhow. We are also now doing all our own silaging, either Martin, me or Caroline. It’s really all about whoever is available on the day.

“We are in a Mid-Tier Stewardship agreement at the moment, but I know that we are not doing enough research into what we should be doing on the new Sustainable Farming Incentive. That’s something we’re going to have to look at. We think we are ticking a lot of boxes already.

Almost nine years ago Chris and Caroline opened Toft Gate Barn Café which has now become Toft Gate Barn Farm Shop and Café with Ellie and Martin at the helm.

“Ellie and Martin are doing really well,” says Caroline. “They have changed it to being more a farm shop, selling Yorkshire produce wherever possible, rather than how it started as more a café, but it still has the café.

“When you walk in now the first thing you see is all the produce,” says Martin. “We don’t sell anybody else’s beef, just our own from our Longhorns or our Longhorn-cross-Limmies. We also have our Beulah lamb and we get through a lot or pork and bacon. We make a lot of our own burgers and sausages. The only meat we buy in from elsewhere is chicken and some bacon and gammon.

“Having the farm shop as well as the café means there is less waste as we are now open seven days a week, apart from Pateley Show day and Christmas Day. I work all the time whether I’m in Harrogate on engineering work, here on farm or in our butchery.

Chris and Caroline’s daughter Anna and her partner Simon have Frank’s Family Butchers in Thirsk where quite a few of their lambs and pigs go to, plus some beef during the year.

Life is looking good up at Toft Gate and at Frank’s right now and Caroline says she is looking forward to tomorrow’s show when all six grandchildren – Harley, Vinnie, Darcie, Connie, Effie and Rex – will be showing.

“It will be interesting and entertaining. Rex is a bit forward for showing at just fifteen months but his mum and dad will be with him. We’ll all be ready for any escapees. We’re doing it to encourage them to take part in future.

“Chris is on the show committee and is a cattle steward. He was show chairman a few years ago. You’ll find me running around after all the grandkids as well as being involved in flower arranging and making a quilt for a baby’s cot that gets given to a hospital. We are also taking three Longhorns. We were really happy at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show as we also took three and all of them came home with something. We’ve made some really good friends through the Longhorns.

“What does Pateley Show mean to us? It means winter’s coming, but it’s also a day when you catch up with people and have a right laugh.