The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2014 - Issue 35 | Page 34

RON STAINTHORPE

Beef is main course
at Barnby Tofts
Chris Berry talks with Ron Stainthorpe at West Barnby.
When I first started
writing about farming, the
stereotypical photograph
in the agricultural press
seemed to be of a farmer
with either a stern or
forlorn face.
It was a situation I attempted
to rectify through my own
rural publications - because I
didn’t buy the fact that farmers
looked like that all the time.
Indeed, from my own personal
experiences of the past 24
years in agricultural journalism,
I would say that most of the
farmers I have met are warmhearted people who smile
often.
Ron Stainthorpe, who farms
at Barnby Tofts Farm, West
Barnby close to Yorkshire’s
northern coastline west of
Whitby, is one of the most
positive, friendly and smileyfaced farmers it has been
my pleasure to call a friend,
as well as someone I’ve
interviewed a few times over
the years. He’s not hard to
like as he’s chatty, personable
and basically an all-round nice
bloke. He’s also pretty adept
with cattle.

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Aug/Sep 2014 FarmersMart

Some time - probably
about a decade ago now - I
had the pleasure not only of
interviewing Ron for my TV
programme, The Gate, that
went out on video (for those
remember the days of video?)
with the Farming in Yorkshire
magazine, I also played with
my band for a function that
was held on the Mulgrave
Estate. The event was part of
an open day at Ron’s farm and
organised by meat processors,
Dovecote Park, whom Ron has
supplied with cattle since they
started.
“We started with them in
the late 90s,” says Ron. “And
we’ve been with them ever
since. They’re just doing a
story about us to go on their
website. We were originally
supplying Dawn Meats at
Carnaby near Bridlington
who were sourcing cattle for
Dovecote Park, but then they
(Dovecote Park) decided they
wanted their own system and
we began supplying direct to
them.
“Like many others on the
Mulgrave Estate, owned by
Lord Normanby, this was once

a dairy farm. Nearly every farm
on the estate used to have
milking cows but we moved
out of milk