The Farmers Mart Aug-Sep 2019 - Issue 64 | Page 38

38 GREAT NEWSOME FARM AUG/SEP 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk GROWING SINCE 1975 Argrain Ltd is an independent family business serving farmers Argr throughout Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the North East. Contact us on 01347 822322 for friendly advice and a competitive price! ♦ Grain & Oilseed Drying, Storage & Marketing ♦ Seed Corn, Maize and Grass Seed ♦ Propcorn & Fertiliser A: Mill Farm, Raskelf, York, YO61 3LB. T: 01347 822322 Leeming Bar Industrial Estate T: 01677 424172 www.argrain.co.uk [email protected] ♦ Animal Feeds & Mineral Supplements ♦ Straights, Molasses & Brewer’s Grains Proud to support Jonathan & Matthew Hodgson of Great Newsome Farm KNOW THE DRILL • PROVEN ESTABLISHMENT • RELIABLE YIELDS • PROFITABLE CROPS Mzuri Pro-Til has a unique combination of features which create the optimum conditions for each seed to reach its full potential. • Award-winning design features • Less soil disturbance, better soil CONTACT US: T: [phone] • High quality, British engineering • Saves time, fuel & money E: [email protected] W: www.mzuri.eu WITH YOU ALL THE WAY NC Buckton Ltd Tel: [phone] Email: [email protected] Wishing Johnathan and Matthew Hodgson continued success ‘We are also conscious of our soil. It is our means of growing crops and over the past ten years we’ve taken steps to ensure we are looking after it correctly. Our soil health on the face of it is pretty good but it does no harm at all trying to maintain and improve it. We now strip till, tilling where the seed goes and leaving other land undisturbed. It’s all the better for storing carbon. We’ve purchased a Mzuri drill to plant all our cereals and rape crops to reduce cultivations and help control weed problems. It should also bring down our costs of establishment that we would like to get below £100/hectare.’ ‘One of the things we are about to do in September is to bury some pants in the soil. It’s a tried and trusted method of checking soil health. Once buried you leave them for six to eight weeks, then you dig them up to see how much the cotton underwear has deteriorated. The more it has, the better your soil heath through worms, fungi and bacteria. Worm count, in the soil, is some- thing farmers have never really understand the benefit of wholly in the past.’ In essence that is today’s farm and farming principles at Great Newsome, but it is the brewery they started 13 years ago, the Little Otchan shepherd’s hit set delightfully and highly exclusively alongside its own lake and their new logs business acquired recently Holderness Logs that is providing the brothers, the family and the surrounding area with greater employment opportunities, a new lease of life and some- where for visitors and tourists to enjoy. ‘Lots of other farmers like us have had to diversify in order to provide the right way of life,’ says Matthew. ‘We now have to deal with the public through businesses we have started or taken on, but the really good thing is when you get great feedback. You