12 LOW GRANGE FARM APR / MAY 2022 • farmers-mart . co . uk
FOUR GENERATIONS OF FARMING AND DIVERSIFICATION EXCELLENCE AT MELSONBY
Recently I met up with two inspiring farming characters David and Austen Richardson of Low Grange Farm and Quarry , nestled on the outskirts of the quaint North Yorkshire village of Melsonby
INITIALLY I chatted with David , Austen ’ s father , as Austen was on pig ferrying duty .
The Richardson ’ s have been at Low Grange for three generations . Dave ’ s grandfather bought Bracken House Farm back in 1916 when he came off a tenanted farm . The 200 acres also included an old limestone quarry that hadn ’ t been worked for some time - the quarry was always seen as a potential rainyday project .
David ’ s father , also named Austen , was the initial driving force behind building up of the farm . He acquired a lot more land which is principally why Low Grange Farm and David ’ s farm Bracken House are side by side in some 750 acres .
David has been a farmer all his life , working on the family farm whilst at school and on leaving , naturally came along with his brother to work on the farm full time . Dave is married to Margaret , who comes from a local family in North Cowton .
David ’ s father , being an astute man , knew well the potential difficulties for different sides of a farming family working on the same farm . So , very early on , it was decided that David would remain at Low Grange .
Austen , like David , worked on Low Grange as a youngster . On leaving school , he studied at Bishop Burton for 2 years , with 1 year on farm as part of the course . Austen is married to Fiona who also is a farmer ’ s daughter , her family farm being in Scorton . They have a son Daniel 16 and daughter Felicity 16
Low Grange has always been a mixed farm , although as the generations have progressed the spread has become wider . Today , the 750 acres is host to a continental beef herd of about 600 , spilt between bulls and steers . I asked David , why continentals , and he replied , “ better carcass ”, although his father rather favoured Irish cattle with due to their quicker turnaround
They now have around 1200 pigs on B & B from a local farmer , 220 sheep , mainly mules and Texel crosses . On the arable side , they have fodder beet mainly for the cattle , wheat , barley and oil seed rape along with oats grown for the sheep . There is 30 acres of grass seeds , 100 acres for pasture with an extra 50 acres rented . With the ever-growing price of feed etc they prefer to grow the cattle the cattle on fodder beet , good silage and pasture grass then finish them on grain
As David and I walked around the farm , I commented on the impressive roundhouse sheds that house the cattle . Initially they were looking to put up a new sheep shed and keep the cattle in their existing one . David then got talking to Geoff Simpson of S and A fabrications of Barnard Castle . Geoff ’ s brother had put up their very first roundhouse and they were looking for a local farm to be a
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