SOMETIMES life has a funny way of working out for all of us . If you ’ d asked Martin Noble what he wanted to be years ago he would have replied instantly that fighter pilot with the RAF was his aim , he probably wouldn ’ t have guessed that one day ( and as far as he ’ s concerned it is to remain only ever one day ) he would be dressed up in a Santa Claus outfit on the family ’ s now burgeoning Woolley Edge Christmas Tree farm - more of that later .

Martin and wife Cheryl live at Beacon Hill Farm in Woolley Edge and while much of Martin ’ s main work is with combinable cropping across around 750 acres in three distinct blocks the Christmas tree business he and Cheryl started around 2005 has now become quite an entity . They currently have 36,000 trees in the ground and are looking to get to 50,000 .

‘ I was brought up on a farm in Thurnscoe that is rented from the Fitzwilliam Estate ,’ says Martin . ‘ I studied at Harper Adams ; tried to get in the RAF as a pilot and was offered navigator . I started training at Cranwell , but it didn ’ t work out . I travelled around the world for a year taking in Bali , Australia , New Zealand , Hawaii , mainland USA and was hay carting in Western Australia , picking apricots in 41 degrees and cotton farming on the Queensland / New South Wales border .’

Having returned to Yorkshire Martin farmed with his father Robert who passed away three years ago and now farms with his brother Peter who had been involved

in a share farming arrangement at Brighouse for a while but had moved to New Zealand .

‘ Today Peter and I farm here at Beacon Hill , where the land is owned in partnership between Cheryl and her dad , Billy ( Platts ); and at the home farm we started at plus another near Rotherham that we also rent . Our farming operation is run as a limited company with me , Peter and our mum Dorothy as directors . We share farm Beacon Hill with Cheryl and Billy .’

‘ We ’ re growing 250 acres of winter wheat varieties Graham , Siskin and Sundance . It ’ s all primarily for feed but if we achieve milling quality with the Siskin then that is a bonus . Our average yield is around 3.75 tonnes per acre . We also grow spring barley , oilseed rape , peas and canary seed for the first time this year . Our soil types vary from sandy

like an inland beach to open cast where we are trying a lot of manures to get the structure back , but it doesn ’ t happen overnight .’

While many farms report problems with blackgrass the bigger threat to crops in Martin ’ s area is ryegrass .

‘ It ’ s a massive issue around south and west Yorkshire . We ’ ve

moved away from linseed because it wasn ’ t doing the job we hoped it would in tackling the worst infestations of ryegrass .’

‘ The wheat price of around £ 140- £ 150 per tonne is about where it wants to be . When it hit £ 200 it was great for us but wasn ’ t sustainable as the end user just couldn ’ t afford it . Our concern is over the prices of fertiliser and