COWS , calves , caravans , café and construction all have their place at Carr House Farm , Allerston where the Stockdale family has farmed since 1953 when Walter Stockdale and his son Tony took on what was then a 150-acre tenanted farm .

‘ Dad would have been in his 20s when they came here ,’ said Chris Stockdale . ‘ At the time it had no running water or electricity . It was a very wet lowland farm and our dad and grandad started building up the dairy herd , originally with British Friesians before going to Holsteins in the 1970s .’

Today , Chris and his brother John are partners in the farm , caravan site and construction business along with their parents Tony and Marjorie . The dairy farm now runs to 170 pedigree Holsteins - the Carrvale herd , which is also the name of the caravan site which has capacity for 220 caravans . The farm now runs to 420 acres . The family has invested in all areas and the next generation are also playing their parts .

‘ We bought the initial 150 acres in 1980 as sitting tenants ,’ said Chris . ‘ Shortly after that we took our cow number up to 90 and went to three times a day milking for 7 years to pay off the mortgage . We increased our herd average to 8,000 litres , which was a big yield back then . We ’ d taken advice on how to achieve it from Andrew Heaton . John and I were both in our late teens and early 20s . We were two sons who were keen to get on and progress the farm .’

The brothers had both studied at Askham Bryan College . Chris always wanted to farm and John started Stockdale Construction having worked on expanding the family ’ s caravan site .

‘ We ’ d had a 5-van site for many years but it was in 1984 that we obtained permission for 58 vans and John put together everything on the site . As a result of what he did here he started getting enquiries from farmers and private individuals and Stockdale Construction was born . He works all around the Vale of Pickering and the North York Moors on all kinds of groundwork from roads to water , sewage and tarmacking .’

Further purchases of additional blocks of land now means the Stockdales own 240 acres and rent another 180 .

In 2009 a major investment was made into the dairy unit . ‘ Our parlour was dated , everything was tired and so John put up new sheds and we invested in a new De Laval 20 / 20 milking parlour with an automatic backing gate . It cut our milking times from three hours to two , allowed us to expand the dairy herd to 170 and took our cow performance to 10,500 litres .’

‘ The cows average around five lactations and we replace at around 24 per cent . One of my greatest sources of pride is that we produce 4000 litres per cow from forage .’

The new buildings and parlour also brought about another significant change to Chris ’ dairy farming system .

‘ That ’ s when we started keeping in the high yielders and fresh calvers during the summer . We had put in new sand bed cubicles that increased their comfort and brought down mastitis . The rest of the cows go out to grass in April until October .’

Milk is sold to Arla on a 360 Morrisons contract which Chris said is very strictly controlled . ‘ We ’ ve been in the current contract for 18 months . It ’ s not something you get handed to you on a plate . It ’ s all about top performance . You are scored on such as bacteria and cell count and over a period you are flagged up as a quality producer . There are a lot of hoops to jump through but once you have and can maintain that level you can receive a premium .’

Chris and his daughter Chloe handle all the AI work and use sexed semen on 15-20 per cent of the dairy herd with the rest of the herd on Wagyu AI .

‘ The young dairy heifers are our next generation in the parlour . The Wagyu calves are all destined for Warrendale Wagyu and are picked up by Roy Thompson of Hutton Cranswick at between 10-14 days . He then takes them through to finishing . Warrendale Wagyu is in demand in top London restaurants and we are in at the start of the process .’

“ It ’ s working well for us . The benefits are that the Wagyu are very easy calvings , straight on their feet when born , we receive a guaranteed price per calf and a further slaughter premium

when they go at 2 years . It also ticks the sustainability box as Roy ’ s farm is less than 15 miles away .”

Animal Health is very important to Chris and family . They have just recently changed to Howells Veterinary Services who are very pleased to be working with such a prestigious farm .

Chris ’ arable is a short rotation on a simple system of either maize , wheat and barley or grass , wheat and barley .

‘ This year we have 105 acres of winter feed wheat Kerrin , a third of which goes caustic for the dairy cows , with the rest sold ; 65 acres of winter barley 6-row hybrid Libra with 20 percent

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