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‘ Our main calving time is between October to December but we are heading towards all year round calving . Our heifer beef cattle will go out to grass along with the dry cows and the heifer replacements for the dairy herd , but the bulls are kept in so that they can ’ t get to the heifers .’
‘ The majority of our beef cattle go to Thirsk livestock market at between 14-16 months
Richard says that contractors are used on the arable work and the grassland harvest .
‘ We are growing 100 acres of winter wheat this year with the varieties Skyscraper and
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Insitor , we usually average around 4 tonnes per acre on a variety of heavy clay to nice loam ; and 50 acres of winter barley . In May we look at starting forage maize .’
‘ We have contractors for the heavy work of drilling and combining with Philip Wise doing all the arable work required and Metcalfe Farms handling all of the silage . We take three and sometimes four cuts that sees us through winter .’
Joining a stewardship scheme has been another element Richard has added recently .
‘ We have just joined Mid- Tier stewardship because we
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needed to make up for what we had lost through the loss of the Farm Payment Scheme and are looking at hedging and bird cover strips . Losing it will make things harder but I think we can cope with it .’
With the milk price having made good progress in recent months and with the beef price remaining high Richard has every reason to feel optimistic , but he ’ s well aware of the way fuel and fertiliser prices have also rocketed .
‘ This year I ’ d like to think we will be making a decent living but with fertiliser costs already three times what they were less than a year ago and fuel up by a
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long way we really need those prices of milk and beef to be maintained .’
On another bright note Richard and Jenny ’ s daughters are both members of the Holstein Club and it may not be long before they are both seen in the show ring with the family ’ s dairy herd .
‘ We don ’ t show our cows as yet but Emma and Alice are both interested . They were going to show some of them last year at a Holstein competition at York Auction Centre but an attack of Covid hit us on show day .’
‘ Emma is already keen and enjoys stockjudging through
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Thirsk YFC where they are both members . She ’ s currently studying agriculture at Askham Bryan College . I went to the Bedale Out Centre for the college one day a week for my studies and was involved with Bedale YFC because when my parents first started farming they were at Carthorpe .’
Although Covid robbed the girls of their first Holstein showing appearance Richard says the pandemic hasn ’ t otherwise affected them as a family farm .
‘ I ’ m a bit of a workaholic and stay on the farm mostly . Mum and dad live on the farm as well . We ’ ve all done okay .’
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