The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2016 - Issue 47 | Página 52

Chris Rooke

not this year. The rest of the
farmland is down to grass.
‘Our land varies from
medium loam to heavy clay
and includes sandy land. We
have some that is nearly Grade
1 and despite everything we
have a super crop of around
40 acres of winter wheat on
there at present. Last year
we achieved a very healthy
average yield of 4.2 tonnes per
acre on wheat and 4 tonnes on
barley.’

Livestock plays its part too.
Chris has a herd of 75 suckler
cows with roughly half being
Aberdeen Angus X and the
other half Belgian Blue X.
‘The cows are three-quarter
bred Aberdeen Angus and
three-quarter bred Belgian
Blue. I have two Belgian Blue
bulls. We take the bull calves
to 14-15 months when they’re
around 580-600 kilos and
sell them as fatstock at York
Auction Centre. The heifers

and remaining bullocks go
out for a second year so that
they get a second season on
grass. They’re fed a barley
and protein mix in the last 3-4
months taking them to around
2 years old. The bullocks go
to York. Most of the heifers go
to Geoff Thornton’s butchers
shop in Easingwold. He
supplies a lot of the local pubs
and hotels and because we
keep it local, going to Chris
Hodgson’s abattoir in Sutton

on the Forest, we keep down
some of the costs and get a
better price.’
It was a family ‘do’ about 20
years ago that brought about
what Chris now terms as his
hobby.
‘I started with a whole beef
roast and we’ve been doing
one of those a year ever since,
but I’m now out with hog
roasts most weekends during
summer and we get through
130 pigs from Geoff Thornton
and Wilsons at Sproxton.’

‘It was a family
‘do’ about 20 years
ago that brought
about what Chris
now terms as
his hobby’
Chris’ wife Jo runs the
City & Guilds Centre for York
Proficiency Test Committee in
landbased skills that includes
operator assessing for
sprayers, diggers, dumpers,
fork lift trucks and many other
roles.

52 Aug/Sep 2016 www.farmers-mart.co.uk