The Farmers Mart Dec/Jan 2015 - Issue 37 | Page 16

marsh top farm The Holmes family TURNING A HOBBY INTO A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS AT MARSH TOP FARM Ian Wilkinson met the enthusiastic and hardworking Holmes family who own and manage Marsh Top Farm and Farm Shop at appropriately-named Oxenhope, near Halifax. The enterprise actually began as a hobby in 2003, when a friend who was relocating to sunny Cyprus offered Richard and Gretta Holmes four Highland cows. They still have two of the originals, including the black one pictured here. At the time, Richard was an award-winning dry stone waller and also taught his craft at local colleges. Gretta had started a small plant nursery. 16 Dec/Jan 2015 FarmersMart But once they had the cows, their interest and zest for farming got under way and it wasn’t long before what started as a hobby became a family business which today employs the whole family. They now have a herd of 40 Highlands, five Dexters and 10 Belted Galloways. They prefer native breeds because they produce much better meat and they always hang them for 28 days. Richard is looking to cross the Galloway and the Highland to produce a bigger and more docile animal - as the family had some very amusing episodes early on rounding up the nervous Galloways - often just seeing a white flash as they shot past! In addition to the cattle, they also have sheep, lambs and pasture-reared pigs from a range of native breeds including Saddleback, Gloucester Old Spot and Large White. As well as her busy involvement in the farm, Gretta has managed to find time for the further development of the plant nursery. ‘employs the whole family’ In 2012, the then owners of the Farm Shop, Chris and Steve, who at the time were butchering Richard’s meat for farmers’ markets, offered the shop business to Richard. The To read more, visit www.farmers-mart.co.uk