The Farmers Mart Aug-Sep 2019 - Issue 64 | Page 54

54 NORTHFIELD FARM AUG/SEP 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk MAKING THEIR OWN DECISIONS AT NORTHFIELD Chris Berry talks with Stephen Hodgson at Patrick Brompton. WANTING to farm in your own right and being able to do so can often be two com- pletely different things. Stephen Hodgson and his wife Nicola had always dreamed of having their own farm and had made their own steps towards doing so having built up their show flocks of Charollais and Zwartbles sheep, but it was redundancy three years ago that far from being bad news has brought about their recent strides in now having their own place and now a commercial flock at Northfield Farm in Patrick Brompton. Stephen was born the son of a grocer in Cononley near Skipton. His mother was a farmer’s daughter and the young Stephen would help out on his uncle’s farm at West Marton before pursuing agriculture at Askham Bryan College for three years and spending his middle year at Lord Downshire’s Clifton Castle near Masham working with Nicola’s father who ran the dairy herd and was the farm manager. Stephen returned to work there after finishing his studies and he and Nicola married. ‘We started keeping our own Mule sheep in the early 90s,’ says Stephen. ‘When we married in 1992 Granville Fairburn gave us a pet lamb Charollais as a wedding present and we built up our Halfpenny flock from there. The prefix comes from our Halfpenny House we lived in on the estate village. We built up ‘ What was more or less a show flock at one time is now turning more commercial. We now have 250 breeding ewes and we will probably get to 300-400 ’ the flock to around 20-30 breeding ewes between 1992-2000 and started showing. We didn’t have a lot of success until we moved to Northfield in 2000 when I started working as cowman for Martin Webster at Hackforth.’ ‘This place came with the job and we increased our sheep to 50-60. I had some land rented near Clifton Castle and bought around 12 acres at Crakehall in 2010.’ ‘When Martin went out of cows at the time the milk price wasn’t very good three years ago he offered us the opportunity to stay here, rent the farmhouse and the 10 acres. I also now rent some parkland from a man Martin farms with, so in all with everything gathered together we’ve about 80 acres now.’ ‘What was more or less a show flock at one time is now turning more commercial. We now have 250 breeding ewes and we will probably get to 300-400. When KENNETH EASBY LIMITED C H A R T E R E D A C C O U N TA N T S Business and Personal Tax, Audit, Accountancy and VAT Special Agricultural Services, Trust Accounts and Returns, Estate Accounts, Tax Planning Oak House Market Place, Bedale North Yorkshire, DL8 1AQ Tel: [phone] Trinity House Thurston Road, Northallerton North Yorkshire, DL6 2NA Tel: [phone] Hanover House 13 Victoria Road, Darlington Co. Durham, DL1 5SF Tel: [phone] Email: [email protected] | Website: www.kennetheasby.co.uk I was made redundant we decided to increase the numbers quickly and bought 50 Zwartbles from a lady in Pickering. We started with Zwartbles ten years ago and our current breeding includes 30 Charollais bred pure; 20 Zwartbles bred pure; 70-80 pure Zwartbles put to the Charollais tup; 50 Charollais put to the Beltex; and 70 Zwartbles X Charollais put to the Beltex. We send stock to Dunbia via Kenton Foster and get them to premium grades.’ ‘We have been lambing the Charollais in December, the Zwartbles in January and the commercials in March but this coming year we will lamb the Charollais and Zwartbles both in January. People tend to push lambs to get them big for shows but I prefer something in good condition that will go on and grow well rather than being fed too hard.’ ‘We are still aiming to show our sheep, it’s just that we are now trying to make our farm more commercially viable. We both have jobs away from the farm. I milk now twice a day for Middletons in Masham and Nicola works for Cargills.’ ‘We started showing in 1995 and had our proudest moments in 2013 and 2015 when we had Charollais breed champion, THE AWARD WINNING ISUZU D-MAX RANGE AVAILABLE AT YORK VAN CENTRE QUITE CLEARLY, IT JUST WORKS. YORK VAN CENTRE 01904 470170 WWW.YORKVANCENTRE.CO.UK Station lane, Shipton by beningbrough, York YO30 1BS /YorkvancentreIsuzu @yorkvancentre1 21949 Isuzu York Van Centre Ad_3.indd 1 26/07/2019 16:27