The Farmers Mart Dec/Jan 2015 - Issue 37 | Page 58

BRIDGE FARM

Cider with Elaine – plus
Angus & Berrichon
Chris Berry talks with Elaine Keith at Seamer.
Apples, Angus and
Berrichon are the order of
the day in Seamer, near
Scarborough where Elaine
Keith farms with her father
John. I had not visited
Bridge Farm or Weydale
Farm previously, their two
farms that run to just under
400 acres, but had first met
Elaine at an agricultural
show when she was just
starting out with her
Berrichon sheep.
Elaine is the third generation
to farm at Bridge Farm,
the farm her grandfather,

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Dec/Jan 2015 FarmersMart

Francis Keith, purchased
with his mother from the
Londesborough Estate after
moving from Staxton. The
addition of Weydale Farm
came about when her father,
David took on its tenancy.
Elaine recalls her parents’ dairy
herd and how times changed.
“Mum (Anne) and dad milked
Red Polls. The herd was only
around 12-15 cows and I
remember mum saying that we
were paid for the high butterfat
content. We came out of
dairying when dad took on the
tenancy of the other farm and

we moved up there.”
The land at Weydale is vastly
different to that at Bridge
Farm. It is very light land on
the limestone banks of the
Vale of Pickering and it turned
the Keiths from being primarily
livestock oriented to arable
farmers. Today, the arable side
is undertaken on a contract
farming arrangement with
their farm neighbours,father
and son (both called Dave)
Shepherdson at Rudston.
‘We still have overall
responsibility for the
management of the land and
together we agree the crops
that are grown. It’s usually a
fairly even split across 330
acres of growing wheat, barley
and oilseed rape as well as
occasionally renting land out to
Stockdales for potatoes.’
Elaine continued: “My first
passion has always been
livestock and I look after all
of the grassland. We have
had land in countryside
stewardship for the past 30
years and recently got in on
the last round of the Higher

Level
Stewardship
Scheme.
Weydale sits
in the middle of
two dales and is a
site of nature importance.
We have eight species of wild
orchid.”
Elaine started with what was
then known as the Berrichon
du Cher breed in 1988. She
currently has around 15

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