48 CRAWFORD GRANGE AUG / SEP 2021 • farmers-mart . co . uk
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Proud suppliers to Paul Langthorne of Crawford Grange
Tel : 01325 718498 | 07721 679364 Ken Hetherington Email : austen @ lowgrangequarry . co . uk www . lowgrangequarryltd . co . uk
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Niche market that has transformed former dairy farm
Chris Berry talks buffalo , goats and fish with Paul Langthorne at Crawford Grange .
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WHEN Paul Langthorne ’ s son Andrew proved allergic to cow ’ s milk as a little boy Paul and his late father Bert bought two in-calf buffalo .
Little did the Langthorne family know it at the time but that move was to pave the way for an amazing transformation to their farming business and today sees them with one of the largest buffalo herds in the country , a meat business that includes an ever-growing and unique farm shop , an on-farm abattoir and trade throughout the UK .
Crawford Grange in Brompton near Northallerton runs to 330 acres with a further 70 acres of grass rented . It has been in the Langthorne family for four generations but has never had a more radical change than in the past 25 years .
‘ This was a dairy farm where we milked a herd of 200 dairy cows ,’ says Paul . ‘ We set off milking a couple of buffalo to get a drop of milk for Andrew . We had anticipated them calving six months apart but one calved and the other calved a week later , so loads of milk and then none . We bought some more , again just for the milk , and then more .’
‘ Having the buffalo for the milk then led to having more to milk and then having enough for meat and so we started going to farmers markets . After that we began getting more and more involved and buying more and more stock . I enjoyed doing the farmers markets and as the buffalo numbers increased we decreased the dairy cow numbers . We ended up swapping one for another .’
‘ I never missed dairy farming when we stopped . Life moves on and you change . We built the farm shop .’
Andrew , who is now 25 , is the farmer today while Paul concentrates on the commercial end of the enterprise in the abattoir , in the shop and on the road .
‘ We now have about 300 buffalo with about 100 of them being breeding cattle . We were buying from smallholders who had handfuls of them but didn ’ t know what to do with them , but our biggest move was when we bought a larger herd .’
‘ Fairly recently we have bought a decent sized herd from Milton Keynes and another from Colchester . When we buy herds we pick through the cows we ’ ve bought and those that are not in-calf go for meat . Buffalo usually go at around 30 months .’
‘ I started up the abattoir once we were properly under way with the buffalo because other abattoirs didn ’ t seem interested . At the moment we are processing five per week and we are having to buy more to fulfil our orders . We are also doing 50 goats a week and if 100 were available I could cope with that . We could sell twice as much goat meat as I have currently available .’
Proud suppliers to Paul Langthorne of Crawford Grange , wishing him continued success
Moor Lane , Full Sutton , York , YO41 1HX Tel : 01759 373062 / 01759 368563 ( evening ) Fax : 01759 372929
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