CHANCES are that if fate hadn ’ t intervened at an early age Ted Staveley would have become a farmer long before now , having recently taken on his first farm , as tenant on the 606-acre Highfield House Farm on the Swinton Estate at the back end of 2023 .

It has been a rather circuitous route for Ted , whose father was a pigs and chicken farmer of North Stainley and passed away when Ted was just 14 .

Ted ’ s route back to his father ’ s life has included working in commercial property in London ; swapping the bright lights of the city for a return to Yorkshire in his mid-twenties when also jumping careers to life as a tree surgeon ; a few years working for a land agent ; and a gradual

move back to farming that until now has included keeping pigs in woodland and sheep on other rented or borrowed land .

“ It ’ s just luck that one came up so close to us , and that we found another farmer who has come in with us in partnership . I think having Andrew with us gave the estate a bit more faith in us and perhaps we ’ d not have got the tenancy if we ’ d been on our own , or at least it might have been a lot less likely .

“ We ’ d seen a couple of farms come up that I ’ d then had a look at but I hadn ’ t been interested in them , and then this one came up . Our partner on the farm is well respected farmer and businessman Andrew Loftus and we ’ ve formed Highfield Farm Partnership to farm

together . Both Andrew and I have other jobs elsewhere and this was a big job to take on , on our own , and needs a fair amount of work doing .

It ’ s the realisation of Ted ’ s ambition to return to farming and something he held dear to his heart .

“ I ’ m on Cloud Nine right now ,” Ted says when I talk with him . “ It ’ s a dream come . It was always my dream to have my own farm , that was the plan . My dad , Simon , was a pig farmer and chicken farmer . He had 250 sows and 60,000 chickens . My mum Judy ran it for a while afterwards and then my uncle Robert took it on . I worked on his farm until I was 20 and studied agriculture at Newcastle .

“ I did a lot of chainsawing for my uncle Robert and I did all the courses that were needed to become a tree surgeon . That business is going well . I have a team that works with me , but I ’ ve always hankered for farming and with having sheep and pigs already we were looking for a farm when this one came up that suited us well .

Sheep have been part of Ted ’ s remit for a while , building up his own flock that he can now extend upon with the acreage now at his own disposal .

“ Before we took on the tenancy here at Highfield House we rented about 150 acres all year round and another 50 acres during summer , where people

have horses and wanted the grass to be kept down .

We had about 200 ewes that we lambed every year down in Mickley and we ’ ve kept that land as well , so we will have that on top of the land we have here .

“ We ’ ve bought a few more and currently have about 300 ewes , mainly Mules and then Texel and Suffolk X . We are also in the process of buying the Swaledale flock of 128 ewes that is hefted to this moor .

“ We ’ ve also got a Hampshire Down tup and Oxford tup which we put on to about 80 of the Mules . We produce grass fed lamb out of them which we sell to Swaledale Butchers in Skipton and to eatTelfit at Marske . We put our commercial tups on to the Texels and Suffolks and sell out of Leyburn as fat lambs .

Another plus for Ted this year is having his own sheds for lambing .

“ Prior to moving here we have lambed in April but we will be starting in mid- March this year as we now have shed