The young sheep farmer inspiring a new generation to cultivate the land

Young Yorkshire farmer Gareth Barlow has built up his flock of Hebridean sheep from scratch and his business is thriving. Chris Bond went to see him.

When I visited Gareth Barlow three years ago he had a modest flock of 33 sheep on three, two-acre paddocks. Now he runs 400 rare-breed Hebrideans over 130 acres of land loaned to him by local farmers and landowners amid the stunning, tranquil splendour of the Howardian Hills.

That’s not bad going for a 22 year-old who doesn’t come from a farming family and who only bought his first sheep six years ago as a teenager. It has, he agrees, been a busy few years. “You always have grand plans when you start out of where you want to go, what you want to do and who you want to be. But I suppose it’s taken off more than I dreamed it would have done,” he says.

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He’s not joking when he says it’s taken off. He supplies more than 20 top restaurants, his lamb has been eaten by royalty and he’s become something of a poster boy following his appearances on the BBC’s popular Countryfile programme. He’s even supplied the two Michelin-starred Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley. “I emailed Marcus Wareing down in London,” says Gareth, taking up the story. “They told me to send a sample down and they would try it, which I did, and a week or so later they got back in touch saying it was fantastic. I can extol the virtues of my lamb forever but for a two-Michelin star restaurant to say they think it’s good enough to use is great – and it waves the flag for Yorkshire.”

Gareth lives in picturesque Bulmer, one of the original Castle Howard villages, with his IT consultant father and his mother who works in business development. Neither of his parents have any farming experience to pass on to him which meant he’s had to learn as he’s gone along. “When I first started almost every week my parents would come and help me round up the sheep. They helped me as much as possible but they have busy lives and I can’t say ‘Can you help me in the field today?’ so I had to learn how to do it myself. I had to read Farmers Weekly and the Farmers Guardian and just figure it out.”

In 2008 he went to study zoology at Durham University but dropped out after a year to follow his childhood dream of becoming a farmer. “My intention was to then go to agricultural college but I got so busy I didn’t have time, so I never had a qualification in what I’m doing now, although I don’t think that’s held me back too much.”

He has put in a lot of hard graft and long hours, working for a while as a part-time trainee butcher at the nearby Castle Howard farm shop. But how, when we hear so much about farmers struggling to keep their businesses going, has he been able to succeed? “Most farmers work hard I just try and keep everything in house. You have to take your lambs to the abattoir and if they butcher it as well it’s another £10 or £15 per lamb, which is a lot of money. So because I learned how to butcher I save on that. I’ve really tried to avoid any middlemen where possible and minimise costs and one of the benefits of being small is that’s easier to do.”

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Despite driving a successful business he’s modest about what he’s achieved. “I bought a breed of sheep that survived my ignorance to start with. I didn’t manage to kill anything and that was possibly more luck than judgment,” he says.

Gareth is intelligent, polite and articulate, but he also has a sound business head on his young shoulders. “I think you’ve got to be a businessman first and a farmer second. If you don’t have business knowledge then you can end up being reliant on subsidies which isn’t an ideal business model.”

However, one thing you can’t factor in to any business model is the erratic British weather. “The fact it’s been so wet has the been the biggest issue. You’re constantly having to move the sheep and manage the land the best you can, or you find the grass is growing so quickly there’s no nutritional content in it,” he says. “If it’s cold lambs can deal with it and if it’s wet they can deal with it, but if it’s cold and wet then there’s the risk of pneumonia.”

The inclement weather has affected his stock. “This year’s batch of lambs have probably been the worst in terms of growth rate so it will be later before they’re ready for eating, which means you have to change your plans. Everything has a knock-on effect.”

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Gareth is basically a one-man band but he says in farming there’s no such thing as an average day. “At this time of year I’m feeding up the sheep, or moving them to another field and repairing fences. But, equally, I might be out seeing customers, or making deliveries or doing some butchering.

“One day I started at seven and later I sat down to do my VAT return and looked at the clock and it was four in the morning, so I just got showered and went back out again and it ended up being a 40-hour day.” He is, he says, dictated to by the weather, his customers and, above all, his sheep. “If they decide to escape, which they normally do at a less than appropriate time, then you have to run after them – so they’re the boss, really.”

But as well as all the hard graft he’s found time to appear on Countryfile which has helped make him a bit of a local public figure. “I remember one Sunday morning when I was still working at Castle Howard this elderly couple walked in and said ‘Are you the lad who’s been on Countryfile?’ And I said ‘yes’ and I asked if they’d come to buy some meat and they said ‘No, we’ve come out to see you’ and they were doing an hour-and-a-half round trip to stand there and wave at me and then go home again, which was flattering but a bit odd.”

He’s become something of a role model, too, although he’s wary of using the tag to describe himself. “I’ve probably been used as an example but I think that’s something for other people to decide.” But what he does believe is that more young people are getting interested in farming. “I know increasing numbers of people my age that have come from non-farming backgrounds or left and want to go back to it. I even had an email from a lad in his early teens living in Glasgow city centre who was desperate to become a farmer and asking what he can do,” he says.

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“It’s looking rosier now than it was five years ago but there’s still work to be done. The average age [of a farmer] is still 58, which isn’t a bad thing because you get this wealth of knowledge and expertise that you can’t buy or read in a book. It would be foolish to try and push them off a tractor and let a bunch of 19 year-olds take over, it would be a disaster. But we need to plan for the next generation and I think the industry has grasped this and if you look at all the agricultural colleges they’re full to bursting so it’s in a better position now than when I started out.”

Gareth has already achieved a great deal but at a time when many of his peers are out enjoying themselves and exploring the world, does he feel like he’s missing out? “There are times when I look at friends who’ve finished university and gone on a gap year and I think that might have been nice. But, equally, I’ve done a lot of things that if I hadn’t left university and registered self-employed at the age of 19 I would never have done. You can either look at it as everything you’ve missed out on, or you can look at all the opportunities you’ve had and everything you’ve gained.”

And he’s happy right now simply learning his trade. “You can’t look backwards in business you’ve got to look forward. There are things maybe I would have changed in my business development if I could start again, but you can’t and you crack on.

“My goal when I was a young boy was to have my own farm and my end goal now is still to have a farm, how I get there and by what methodology and what time scale has yet to be decided. But I’ve come a long way in three years.”

Young farmer and role model

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Gareth Barlow bought his first sheep, six Hebridean ewes and a ram called Hadrian, at the age of 16 after saving up Christmas and birthday money and selling his PlayStation.

Now, at the age of 22, he runs 400 sheep over 130 acres in North Yorkshire after getting his first proper tenancy.

After dropping out of university, he worked as a part-time trainee butcher at the Castle Howard farm shop to hone his skills.

He supplies 25 restaurants, including a two Michelin star restaurant.

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