50 WIGHILL LANE FARM FEB / MAR 2018 • farmers-mart . co . uk
50 WIGHILL LANE FARM FEB / MAR 2018 • farmers-mart . co . uk
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SUCCESS IN THE RING FOR YOUNG TOM
Chris Berry talks with Mark and Tom Farrar at Healaugh
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SINGERS , actors and footballers that appear to burst on to their respective stages are often labelled an overnight success but when you look more deeply the phenomenon is rare . Most have spent much of their lives beforehand training , playing and performing to reach what some others might see as instant acclaim . It ’ s the same with farming and in particular the Farrars at the 180-acre Wighill Lane Farm in Healaugh where they have farmed since 2007 .
Son Tom ( 17 ), one of three sons to Mark and Kirsty , won at York ’ s Christmas Primestock show and sale with three lambs from Beltex ewes to Paul Slater ’ s Texel X Beltex tup ; Mark followed up with a win at Selby ’ s Christmas show and sale . While this all sounds great and they ’ re very happy their successes can be traced back decades and in Mark ’ s case has taken in his West Yorkshire roots , the Yorkshire Dales , North York Moors and latterly the Vale of York .
Today ’ s farming operation includes around 500 sheep and 25 cattle . The breeding ewes include 30 Swaledales that are bought in as gimmer lambs from Hawes , half a dozen Blue Faced Leicester ’ s , 170 Mules and 300 Texel X Mules .
“ We ’ re largely a closed flock ,” says Mark . ” We sell a few Blue Faced Leicester tups at Ruswarp livestock market and buy new tups privately for a change of blood from Ashley Caton . We lamb around 100 older ewes from the third week in January and the rest in March . We like all our ewes to have two lambs and our lambing percentage is about 200 per cent . Texel X Mules are our bread and butter and we sell mainly into York and Selby marts but also Otley where the Mules sell better . Tim Garside is a good buyer of our stock as is Mark Fitton at Selby . It ’ s taken us 10 years since we arrived here to get to the standard we ’ re now achieving . It ’ s always a learning curve and we now know what this land will carry .”
“ We buy all our tups we use on our Texel X Mules from Paul Slater . He ’ s renowned for producing great tups . We creep feed all our lambs .”
Tom clearly has an eye for quality sheep and now has a small flock of 35 ewes . He breeds tups for his dad , as well as working two days a week with Robinsons at
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Newton Kyme where they have sheep , cattle and arable land and is in his second year studying agriculture at Askham Bryan College .
“ The lambs I won with at York last Christmas were from the older ewes and were well finished . Tim ( Garside ) liked the length and quality of the carcase underneath . I like the Beltex and have spent on them in recent times to increase the quality of our stock further .”
‘ It ’ s all about knowing which tups to put with which ewes and this year I put all the ewes I have to three different Beltex tups .’
“ Tom must be doing something right as he also picked up the young handler award ,’ says Mark . ‘ He presented them well , washing their coats , trimming and getting them to look right .”
“ I ’ ve learned a lot through stockjudging in young farmers . I ’ ve been with Tadcaster & Wetherby YFC for about five years and have competed at national level a few times in the live & carcase and stockman of the year . I go along with my good mate Tom Barley who does better than me .’
‘ I went on a Beltex Society course about clipping three years ago in order to
Vale wish the Farrar Family continued success