CHRIS Berry talks with David Grewer of Pheasant Hill Farm .

Red deer were one of forester David Grewer ’ s primary reasons for getting into farming having been amongst wild deer regularly while working in the Scottish Highlands .

“ That ’ s where my passion was sparked ,” says David , who bought Pheasant Hill Farm near Ebberston and on the edge of Dalby Forest 15 years ago and started his now 400-plus strong herd 12 years ago .

“ Several trips to New Zealand also helped fuel my passion , and my wife Sara and I moved here with our daughters Rosie and Harriet in 2008 . Prior to that we weren ’ t too far from the farm , but it had become my ambition to get into deer farming and when this came up we took the opportunity .

“ We spent the first three years trying to find some money to start purchasing stock and investing in the house .

“ We now have 150 breeding hinds and with calves going at 20 months there are always 400-plus on at any one time . I enjoy looking after them . It was a bit of a hobby that has now grown into a job as we also have Christmas trees , that bring in the main income , so half of my job is looking after the deer and the other half is looking after the trees .

David has just come out of Christmas tree season for another year . He grows 80,000-90,000 trees on land he owns and further land he rents , and he cuts 8500- 9500 a year . He sells most to farm shops and greengrocers but also retails his own at Redcliffe Farm Shop at Lebberston on the North Yorkshire coast 13 miles away .

“ The Christmas trees prop everything else up ,” says David . “ There is a bit of money in

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red deer and a little bit in arable , but I don ’ t think you do farming to earn huge amounts of money .

It ’ s a way of life and a very interesting life . I enjoy that .

“ I was a forester and have been so all my life , I worked for a private forestry investment company mainly in Scotland , and we would go out and acquire land and plant trees on it , on behalf of , in those days , celebrities for people using the tax regime of that time to invest in things like that in the 80s and 90s .

“ I ’ m from Cornwall originally , but I ’ ve spent much of my life in Yorkshire . We had 10 years in Scotland . We were in the Inverness area for a while , then Fort William area . There was a lot going on in forestry in those days .

“ When we moved back to Yorkshire , I took up with a contracting business where I employed a number of workers , but during Covid-time I decided enough was enough on the contracting side . I wanted to concentrate on the farm instead .

Pheasant Hill Farm runs to 300 acres with 140 acres of arable land , 125 acres of grass and 35 acres of woodland .

David ’ s passion is still his deer and counts Richard Elmhirst of Round Green Farm in South Yorkshire as a huge inspiration , along with Terry Shaw .

“ Richard and Terry helped me get going . I was lucky to come across them , bought stock off them and have benefited massively from the wealth of their experience .

“ We grow a little bit of silage to feed them . We always bring them into the sheds and concrete yards for winter , but we will let them stay outside for as long as we can . If the weather gets particularly horrid at any time we will bring them in . We keep them in separate herds . We supply Dovecote Park who , in turn , supply high end supermarkets .

“ I do occasionally buy one or two in from other farmers we know , when changing the bloodlines , and we may swap stags .

David says he uses a local contractor Ben Morley for his arable work .

“ The economies of scale dictate it is best done by a contractor . I do have some kit of my own but mine is more geared to the Christmas tree enterprise . “ We grow winter wheat , a little bit of spring barley , oilseed rape and beans . It all depends on the growing season . We ’ ve had some very dry springs and when we do it is hard to get these crops going . It ’ s not very good growing land . It ’ s predominantly limestone , pretty thin soil , but with its rolling topography it has great views . The Christmas trees allow David to maintain his passion for the deer . He has been a forester all his life and has always grown Christmas trees .

“ I own and lease some areas of ground , including a Forestry Commission block . They used to grow Christmas trees and gave up on it . I took that over 4 years ago , scrapped a lot of what they were doing and put in Nordmann Fir , which is the predominant species now . We grow 90 per cent Nordmann Fir with the rest divided between Fraser Fir and Norway Spruce .

“ I started to grow my own Christmas trees when I was 22-23 years old , so I ’ ve been growing for more than 40 years and have always had satellite pieces of land .

“ As a forester , growing Christmas trees is a quick crop because they are ready in 8 to 10 years . We cut 8500 trees this Christmas just passed .

“ The traditional Norway Spruce smells lovely and there ’ s nothing wrong it . You can buy one for nearly half the price of a Nordmann Fir . If you get one from someone mid-December , keep it in bucket of water in garage and take it in the week before Christmas it should last 10-12 days , but people are now wanting to put their trees up last week of November .

David says having the retail side is the icing on the cake .

“ If you can produce something on the farm and sell it direct , that ’ s great . We are fortunate to have the help of Martin Brown at Redcliffe Farm , Lebberston who runs a cracking farm shop , does lovely meals and whose butchery is first class . He ’ s very good to us in letting us sell our trees there .

David also pays tribute to his wife Sara and their daughters .

“ Sara does all the paperwork and endless amounts of red tape we have to comply with while I get on with a nice interesting job .

“ The girls have a good eye for the Christmas trees and will walk through them tagging the trees for size and quality .

“ Growing trees , having deer and farming the land you never stop learning , I speak with like-minded people and constantly receive new inspiration , ideas and techniques . I wouldn ’ t change it for the world .