The Farmers Mart Apr/May 2015 - Issue 39 | Page 41

J C Lister Farms

Established in 1999, W Dale & Son has
grown to provide a regional agricultural
contracting operation and nationwide
shredding and screening operations.
We are very pleased to be associated with
David Lister and JC Lister Farms
of Morrison’s and Tesco via
three abattoirs. They also send
pigs to Malton Bacon ,
The Listers also have a lot
of bed and breakfast pigs on
farms utilising other farmers’
buildings and David sees this
working together with others as
what they have been all about
from the start. He tells of the
main farming business being
equated to around 60 per cent
pigs and 40 per cent arable.
But their business hasn’t just
sprung up. It has been a steady
progress.
“It’s been a gradual growth
all the time. We now own half
the acreage. Land has come
up sometimes next door to
a contract farm and we have
bought it so that it fits in.
We’ve also lost some contract
farming along the way too, so
it’s not always about adding.
The biggest growth we’ve had
was in 2000 when we took
on 2,000 acres at Newby Hall.
That was a large amount of
land to add in one go but with
it being close by it has worked
well.”
With such a large arable
operation, there is a team of
10 that includes a mechanic to
keep their fleet of John Deere
tractors in good order; a couple
of New Holland tractors that are
presently being tried out; their
two Claas Lexion combines;
and a whole array of other
farm machinery on the road

and in the field. There are also
three wagon drivers, two in the
workshop and two running the
feed mill. Then there’s Jackie in
the office at Ellenthorpe.
“Jackie’s the only one who
really knows what is going
on and who is where!” says
David.
They have sheep and cattle
too. The sheep side of their
farming operation is over in
Coverdale where they have a
1,400-acre farm that has 300
Dalesbred breeding ewes. The
farm has been in the Lister
family for many years. They also
send 70 cows and calves to
graze in the summer when the
land can take ѡ