The Farmers Mart Feb/Mar 2016 - Issue 44 | Page 38

Beck Hill Farm

Growth &
innovation
at Scorton

Chris Berry talks with Robert &
Will Atkinson at Beck Hill Farm
»»TECHNOLOGY IN FARMING
is more prevalent than ever
before and many of today’s
younger generation of farmers
are embracing it with vigour.
Robert and Will Atkinson of
Beck Hill Farm in Scorton, near
Northallerton have the bit well
and truly between their teeth on
the farm’s 1,250 owned acres
plus the 350 acres of rented
grassland. It’s an enterprise
that includes combinable crops,
cattle, sheep and pigs. They
are also involved in whole farm
contracting, remote sensoring
of crops by using drones; the
use of digestate waste; and are
clearly very good at thinking
outside the box.
“Innovation and new
technologies coming into
agriculture are pretty exciting,”
Will told me.
Beck Hill Farm is the business
name for the farm’s activities
and Robert and Will’s parents,
Martin and Valerie, are the
company directors. Nora and
Jack Atkinson, Robert and Will’s
grandparents, bought the original
66 acres in 1955. The two largest
acquisitions were in 1995 and
2009 when The Forest (500
acres) and Greenbury Farm (380
acres) were purchased. The
brothers are both keen to point to
their inspiration when I visited.

“Dad and Mum are our
backbone,” Will explained.
“They’re giving us every bit
of help and advice they can.
They’re always asking us
questions and keeping us on the
straight and narrow, and Mum is
impeccable with the paperwork
and accounts”.
“The farm’s foundations were
initially built on the back of the
pig industry and at one time
there were 6,000 fattening pigs
here. They were a core business
until 1989 when subsequently
fattening cattle took over as the
main livestock enterprise with up
to 500 store cattle.”
Today, the arable side of the
farm runs to 1,000 acres with half
down to winter wheat. Varieties
are Revelation, Beluga and Invicta.
Revelation came in two years ago
following on from Clare. Wheat
averaged 4.5 tonnes per acre last
year on their mainly medium to
heavy clay Grade 3 land. A Min-till
system was started in 1995 and
they use a Plowman Omnitill.
“It’s all feed wheat,’ said Will.
“We sell to local companies such
as the Potter Group, Ripon Select
Foods and Wagg Foods.”
The rotation includes oilseed
rape, winter rye and a cover crop
followed by spring barley.
“We are currently looking for
a replacement for oilseed rape

38 Feb/Mar 2016 www.farmers-mart.co.uk

that can work on our land. It’s
our first year of growing winter
rye and we’re growing for Ryvita.
Our barley is feed barley and we
have RGT Planet and Sanette.
Last year we averaged 4.1 tonnes
per acre.
“Fendt tractors are our
frontline fleet along with John
Deere. We run a Fendt 724 and
936. We have a full warranty
based service deal with Peter
Swales at Brockhill’s. We also
run a Claas Tucano combine. We
moved to the Tucano because
we wanted a bit harder threshing
in order to increase throughput
and to ensure we got the grain
out fully.”
Will has responsibility for
the arable side of the farm and
looking after the 1,800 bacon
pigs which are kept on a B&B
basis for G & M Westgarth.
“We take them on at around
40 kilos and get them through
to bacon. They’re here about
12 weeks. We operate an all-in,
all-out system that means with
turnaround/washing out we get
something like 3.8 to 4 batches
a year.”
Meanwhile, Robert
concentrates on the cattle and
sheep. There’s a herd of 25 pure
Simmental sucklers and 150 store
cattle, as well as around 1,400
breeding ewes.

“We started with Simmentals
around five years ago with
an in-calf cow with calf at foot
from the Scarthingwell herd.
Simmentals have a good
temperament. They’re no hassle
and are very milky. They are
housed for six months and out
for the other six on acreage we
rent in Wensleydale. They calve
in March. I’d like to keep more
of them so we’re keeping all the
heifers that we’re happy with
and building from there. The
bull calves go to Dawn Meats
at around 14 months. We have
one stock bull that we bought in
Stirling while my wife Lucy and I
were on our honeymoon.”
The previous fattening cattle
operation had dwindled over the
past seven or eight years, but
Robert explained why they are
back.
“We’re now working with local
butcher, Anthony Kitson who
has shops in Northallerton and
Stockton and wants only the very
best beef. As long as the quality
is right, that’s his main concern,
regardless of whether it is a big
bullock or a little heifer. He was
looking for somewhere to put the
beasts he’d bought at Christmas
fatstock shows so that he could
then pick and choose when he
wanted them. We’re now buying
stock from areas such as Barnard