Farm of the Week: Sometimes sharing really is the answer on the farm

Dating agencies have brought about many blissfully happy relationships and John Henderson of Kelber Farm in Coniston Cold, near Gargrave is the latest countryside convert but not, it has to be said, to find a new love interest. He is happily married to his wife Anne.
John Henderson, Kelber Farm, Coniston Cold.  Picture: Bruce Rollinson.John Henderson, Kelber Farm, Coniston Cold.  Picture: Bruce Rollinson.
John Henderson, Kelber Farm, Coniston Cold. Picture: Bruce Rollinson.

John is one of the UK’s leading exponents of share farming where landlord and tenant lock-in together in what some now regard as the best type of agricultural marriage. A new pilot service from Land Partnership Services matching farming entrepreneurs with landowners was launched under the Fresh Start banner this month.

“It’s a dating agency aimed at bringing together those who own land or occupy someone else’s land with others who want to farm. One of the biggest problems in starting such as a share farming arrangement is knowing who is up for it.

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“I have share farming arrangements with two fantastic farmers David Coates and Tony Shepherd and half the farmland I own is now share farmed. I started share farming with David back in 1984 and with Tony in 1992. They are two very different people who enjoy running their farm businesses their own way.

“Share farming means that both the landlord and the farmer are riding the same rollercoaster at exactly the same moment which means when things are good you’re experiencing them together and the same when times are not so good. It works for all of us.

“The one thing I never set out to be was a farmer. I was lucky enough to inherit and be trained as a landowner. If someone asks my occupation I always say landowner. That means you are interested enough to know what’s going on but you’re not as good as the occupiers and what they do. I act as a form of mentor and encourager.”

John’s refreshingly blunt honesty over land ownership is not necessarily mirrored by all in the landowners’ fraternity and he admits to having a chuckle over those with a more pompous attitude to where they have come from.

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“My father Becket Henderson bought the bulk of what we have here in 1947. He ran a woollen mill in Keighley and had been quietly successful. He loved the countryside, enjoyed hunting and believed that if you hunted and could afford some land then you should buy. My first question when meeting CLA members has always been ‘where did the brass come from?’ It used to make me laugh when I heard those who tried to gloss over their family history.

“Rather silly, it’s all part and parcel of a hugely familiar story whereby someone made a few quid or won a war. I’ve always been fascinated by how landowners come about.”

Having attended Oxford University briefly and having found that he was more interested in rowing boats, consuming Guinness and a few other things that he says seemed to take priority, he started out on a career in land agency.

“Dad rang a good friend of his Norman Cardwell, who had half a leg blown off in the Second World War. Norman was the agent for Sledmere Estate in East Yorkshire and I spent a year with him learning such a lot of things.

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“The Triton Inn was my watering hole and I was pretty much a permanent resident when a lovely couple, Billy and Olive Dylan, were running the pub. It was at this time that I decided I wanted to be a land agent. I studied at Cirencester and was taken on as assistant land agent with a firm called John German.

“It was a brilliant life and one of the main jobs I recall was going to various estates either weekly, fortnightly or monthly with the wage packets. Everyone was paid with cash in brown envelopes.”

John came back to his father’s estate in the early 70s and has been there ever since.

“I’ve sold bits of land over the years as you sometimes have to and we’re about 1,800 acres now, which is across two main areas here and between Gargave and Malham. The arrangement with David is that he has a three-generation succession farm tenancy, of which he is the second generation with his son Harry hopefully coming on as the third generation; he also has a farm business tenancy (FBT); and we share farm. Overall that puts the farming acreage he is responsible for to around 600 acres and it is further proof that share farming doesn’t have to include the whole of a farm. David has beef cattle and sheep. He also has the fabulously popular Craven Country Ride and a really good haylage business.

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“The two additional businesses came about following foot and mouth disease year in 2001 when everything was culled. While it wasn’t what anyone would have wanted once we were all cleaned up and the payments were received we were in that strange situation for farmers where we had some money in the bank and had time to sit and think.”

David and John were convinced that going back into dairy farming wasn’t for either of them.

“People have always come here to ride and used to give something for doing so. Anne saw that as an idea and so did David. We’ve always been horsey people. David was a great show jumper, Point to Point and Hunter Chase jockey.

“We were always riding and I used to kid myself I was working when I was riding around. David’s idea was the Craven Country Ride and it is now regarded as one of the best off road riding experiences in the country at Pot Haw Farm.

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“The other idea was to make haylage and David now makes these huge bales that are stacked and then when haylage is needed a machine pulls a big bale apart and drops it down to a 20kg heat sealed bag. Both operations have become real winners.

“Tony also has cattle and sheep at St Helens Farm in Eshton. He’s a very canny buyer of young stock and will travel all over the north of England. I also have four tenant farmers in addition to David and Tony.”