46 CARR HOUSE FARM APR / MAY 2021 • farmers-mart . co . uk
going for feed ; and 60 acres of maize which we sow at the end of April / early May . We also have other acreages of silage and grazing . We aim for around 4 tonnes per acre on wheat and 3.25 on barley .’
‘ Our land is generally easy working loam over clay and we are above the River Derwent so we don ’ t flood . We ’ re about 90ft above sea level . We are still ploughing and combination drilling . We use farmyard manure from the cattle . I still think inversion of the land will be what everyone comes back to as our chemical ‘ tool box ’ is becoming less and less every year . We use contractors for combining and muck spreading , forage work and grass , while we handle all the cultivation and fertiliser work .’
Improving soil quality is important to Chris .
‘ We are big into soil mapping and variable rate spreading of Ps and Ks . It was our agronomist Jim Calvert of Procam who got us on to it . We sample every 5 years . I ’ m a firm believer that the only way to improve soil quality is through use of farmyard manure .’
Taking risks by increasing investment without definitely knowing things would work is how Chris describes their growth over the years .
‘ We ’ ve invested heavily in the caravan site over the past five years , with a new café three years ago , a new reception area , underfloor heating and increasing the site capacity . We ’ ve now been closed for quite a bit of 2020 and the start of 2021 which nobody could have predicted , but we ’ ve had belief in everything we have done even if at times others might have thought we ’ d gone crackers !’
Another more recent investment has been in a new Joz robotic pusher that pushes silage into the dairy herd ’ s feed passages . Chris said that they had received a grant from the Production Grant Scheme and it
had arrived just two weeks ago , in April .
Every member of the family is involved in some way . Chris ’ wife Diane runs the caravan site with John ’ s wife Helen in charge of all cleaning and maintenance . Chris and John ’ s sister Wendy is the company secretary across the whole family business . Chris and Diane ’ s daughter Chloe is studying for her agricultural degree at Bishop Burton College and has already added glamping to the family ’ s holiday enterprise with four bell tents ; and their son Thomas is currently studying at Askham Bryan College . Both Chloe and Thomas are looking to come into the farm business . John ’ s son Ben runs a separate company , Stockdale Fabrications , putting up steel framed buildings .
With Chloe and Thomas coming on to the farm Chris can foresee an increase in the dairy herd in future . He is also chairman of Whitby Dairy Discussion Group .