The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2014 - Issue 35 | Page 31

JOHNNY SHAW Ripon Land Rover Hutton Bank, Ripon North Yorkshire HG4 5DT 01764 646464 riponlandrover.co.uk Agricultural Services Muntons. Our oats go to Morning Foods in Crewe.” Johnny has long been an advocate of precision farming disciplines and is a renowned speaker on the many benefits farms can receive by utilising modern technology. He works closely with Clive Blacker of Precision Decisions and is also a director of Russell Farm Machinery. “We’ve been yield mapping for more than 20 years,” he explained. “We didn’t really understand it fully back then but now, as many as 20 per cent of farmers are using it for their harvest. We now have everything on variable application from seed rates to liquid fertilisers. We also use an RTK base station from Russell’s, which gives up to 2cm accuracy with a 30ft header.” The Yara N Sensor has been an essential part of Johnny’s harvest armoury for many years and it is this precision technology that he still uses on what he describes as ‘’moderately heavy’ land that produces around 3.5 tonnes per acre. One major change To read more, visit www.farmers-mart.co.uk • Farm Sales & Purchases • Valuations • Lettings & Contract Farming Agreements • Farm & Estate Management • Development • Compensation Claims • Single Farm Payment & Grant Scheme Advice • Live & Deadstock Auction Sales WE A PLEASE RE ASSOC D TO BE IATED W JOHNN ITH Y SHAW 15 Market Place, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 7LP Tel: [phone] Email: [email protected] 40 Burgate, Pickering, North Yorkshire, YO18 7AU Tel: [phone] Email: [email protected] Reagarth Farm, Helmsley, York, North Yorkshire, YO62 5XH Tel: [phone] Email: [email protected] www.cundalls.co.uk has been his move away from oil seed rape. He had 170 acres of it last year and has been growing it for the past 15 years. He said: “We had three or four belting years with it and two absolute failures, but the rest of the time it just wiped its face and with the neonicotinoids ban coming up, I felt it was time to leave it behind. Our rotation is now wheat – barley – break crop, oats. We have winter and spring cropping.” Prior to spring cropping, Johnny had covers crops such as forage rye, winter vetch and two different varieties of radish. He tells of them being a nitrogen fix that increased the soil’s organic matter and decreased the incidence of blackgrass. It also helped to hold both fox and pheasant. Johnny also has a suckler herd of 60 cows that are put to the Limousin bull producing Limousin X stock. Heifers are sold as stores at 14-15 months and steers at two years. All are sold at Malton livestock market. The Shaw’s have been resident at Welburn Manor since 1893, when Johnny’s great-great grandfather, also called John, came north from Yorkshire’s pit world. John Shaw was the owner of several coal mining concerns in South Kirkby near Pontefract and is said to have been responsible for the building of the village of Fitzwilliam, where the cricketer Geoffrey Boycott was born. Welburn Manor ran to 900 acres at that time. Johnny’s official title is the rank of Major in the Armed Forces and he has run events at the estate for the charity, Help for Heroes. He and his wife, Rosie, have a son, Jack who is presently working with him on the farm - but who is about FarmersMart Aug/Sep 2014 31