Couple's plan to save beef business

This most beautiful dale has been home to Karl's family throughout his life. He has never lived more than three miles away from where he was born, at Croft Farm, in the hamlet of Arkleside, but that could all change within the next two years.

The pair's lives, along with their fledgling livestock enterprise, became a little less certain when they were told that the new landlord wanted the farmhouse where they have lived together for the past eight years. Having built up a Highland cattle pedigree herd and beef trading business since 2003 their lives and agricultural business have been thrown into turmoil.

"It was a bombshell, because we were both under the assumption that we were going to stay here forever, even though there was nothing in any contract to say that we could," says Janet philosophically.

"The landlord has given us plenty of warning though because he told us two to three years ago and we have another two years before we have to leave."

The derelict stone barn that they hope to turn into their new home is reached via a stony, grassy lane on a steep incline from the unclassified road that eventually connects Leyburn and Kettlewell.

This is what they see as their salvation and fortunately for them it's on the ten acres that Karl owns of the 120 acre farm.

Their dilemma is that having established their Highland cattle business in Coverdale and Wensleydale, and having also created strong connections with other businesses, a move away might mean an end

to it all.

"Croft Farm isn't a viable farm anymore," says Karl. "I have been a gamekeeper for the past 30 years and Janet works for an estate agency. We couldn't survive off what the farm brings in. This is a traditional hill farm and in the past we have done what everybody else does up here, but to be successful you need to have a lot bigger acreage than 120.

"We used to keep sheep, around 130-150, but there just wasn't the money in it. When Janet and I took over the farm from my mother we thought we would try something different – produce our own beef, sell it from the farm direct and into a supermarket in Leyburn.

"The way agriculture is going at the moment is towards local produce and we felt Highland cattle would be good for us. We don't have any big farm buildings and the cattle don't need housing because they live outside all the time on the moorland."

That's exactly what they have done and the contribution the Highland cattle business is now making in addition to their two other jobs has seen them develop good relationships with both the general public and local companies.

"We sell most of our beef through Campbell's in Leyburn," says Janet. "They are a very well-known family-run supermarket in the dales. They wanted locally produced beef and also wanted to stock rare breed meat and we now supply one bullock every two months. We also sell direct from Croft Farm to a lot of people from the shooting world all over the UK, who come up to the shoot on the moor behind us where Karl is gamekeeper for Martin Vallance.

"Everything goes to McIntyre's abattoir at Bainbridge and either comes back to us for selling direct or goes on to Campbell's.

"We are really proud of our relationship with Campbell's and if they asked for more from us we would gladly channel more to them than sell ourselves."

The couple have also taken to the agricultural show circuit, appearing regularly at the likes of Otley, Nidderdale and Kilnsey Shows. In their first year of showing in 2007 they won their first championship.

Having to give up what they have achieved since they first bought four bullocks from another Yorkshire breeder of Highland cattle, Richard Turner, in December 2004 is something neither Janet nor Karl want to contemplate, although it could yet be their only choice.

"It doesn't bear thinking about. We love doing what we do and we've worked bloody hard to get this far. Personally I never thought we would achieve what we have. We have a herd of around 50 cattle, with 15 breeding females and two bulls, one of which we bred ourselves, and it is working well. I can't see what harm we would be doing by living here in a converted derelict barn."

To assist with their application for what would be a two-bedroomed cottage, they have enlisted the help of Andy Singleton, author of the Barns of North Yorkshire books, Maria Ferguson of George F White and Karl's employer Martin Vallance.

"We have put in an application for a small dwelling," says Karl. "We know that the National Park like you to normally build on the edge of villages or in a village and this is really between villages, but we think there is a real need for it in our case. We can't run our business without being here.

"If we had to buy a house out this way then the lowest price you're going to find is about 250,000 and that's just out of the question for us. Andy (Singleton) is helping us and we will make it totally eco-friendly.

"When you own a piece of land in the situation we're in and there's a derelict barn on it, I can't see what we would be doing wrong.

"We're trying to run a business that fits in with the area and we have tied in with other local businesses.

"Isn't that what previous governments have been trying to encourage us to do?"