44 NESS HALL FEB / MAR 2018 • farmers-mart . co . uk
44 NESS HALL FEB / MAR 2018 • farmers-mart . co . uk
J Wood & Son are pleased to be of service to Ness Hall Farms Ltd and wish them continued success in the future
For all your farm & garden machinery sales , parts & service needs Contact us 01751 433434 , info @ johnwoods . co . uk
www . johnwoods . co . uk
ENORMOUS CHANGE TO COME BUT WHERE IS THE TARGET ?
Chris Berry talks arable cropping , environmental concerns and Brexit with Richard Murray Wells at Ness Hall
Hainsworth Plant Hire
Covering all aspects of construction & agricultural work
Ditching , Draining , Pond Excavation & Clearance , Road Construction & Repairs , Landscaping , Shed Base Preparation and more ...
Machines available to hire
With CITB Operators or Self Drive , 360 Degree Excavators , Ranging from 1.5 Ton to 22 Ton , JCB 3CX , Drott , Dumpers & Rollers .
Breakers to fit all excavators , crusher bucket to fit 19 and 22 ton excavators , forestry mulching head to fit 13 ton excavators .
Call Mike on 07889768009 / 01653668251 for quotes or friendly advice
FINDING the right formula for farming success has always been a balancing act between making the most of the land wherever your farm is located , marketing as near as you can the appropriate supply to match demand and maintaining sufficient price to create the right margin , while meeting the requirements of government strictures .
The impending move towards Brexit has sent palpitations through the UK farming community with concerns over how existing trade with European countries will be affected and how much the latest Minister for Agriculture Michael Gove will bat on behalf of farmers to ensure that at the very least there is no disadvantage .
Richard Murray Wells has an arable farming enterprise at Ness Hall in the hamlet of Ness near Nunnington in Ryedale . The farm originally purchased by his great grandmother in 1949 now runs to over 2000 acres and he also looks after another 300 acres owned by his father-in-law . Contract farming of a further 2350 acres brings the arable cropping to 4200 acres with additional grassland operations also involved .
‘ We ’ re all waiting to see what Michael Gove is wanting , but we know that we need to be as efficient as possible on our good agricultural land . It sounds like we ’ re going to be competing head-to-head on world markets and that ’ s going to be very tough . We need more direction from government . I always track the market for grain price trends selling when I feel best as we store everything except rape . Prices in the months leading into winter were reasonable and we had sold the majority of the 2017 harvest by Christmas , but there ’ s no telling how Brexit will affect grain prices when it comes around .’
Words emanating from Mr Gove in more recent times have majored on environmental payments being the key to government assistance in the future and having already been and still being involved in ELS and HLS schemes Richard is keen to continue delivering public goods .
‘ We use low inputs on grassland and we ’ re also keen on delivering greater environmental benefits on marginal land . We have water all around us with rivers such as the Seven and Rye running through our land and it all tends to pile up here before spilling into the Derwent . I ’ m keen to undertake a feasibility study into how we can alleviate pressure on flooding in Malton and York by looking at soft defences in holding up the water and widening the flood plain on our land .’
‘ Conservation is important to us and the HLS is something we ’ re delighted to be involved with . We have many bird boxes and species around the farm including lapwings and skylarks . We ’ ve had several bird surveys conducted and have a number of beehives . We ’ re always keen to be involved with Natural England , the Environment Agency and our local Ryevitalise .’
‘ We ’ re looking at how to use Ecological Focus Areas better than we have and we ’ ve worked on soil structure with temporary grass leys .’
Max Ward is Richard ’ s farm manager and has been at Ness since 2009 having originally arrived as a tractor and combine driver . He has a team of two self employed men who are nigh-on full time and a further half dozen involved seasonally .
Winter wheat , barley and oilseed rape form the three main crops with winter wheat grown across 1000 acres at Ness and 2000 acres overall . Feed wheat is the norm with varieties grown including Barrel , Costello , Gator , Kerrin , Leeds , Revelation