The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 70

70 WEST BLANSBY FARM
FEB/MAR 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
NEW HOME FOR THE TIMMS’
AS THEY MOVE TO PICKERING
Chris Berry talks with Chris & Lisa Timm following their shift from Appleton Roebuck to West Blansby Farm.
THERE was never any doubt that Chris
Timm was going to be a farmer, but
while he’s followed on from his father in
his eye for stock and producing quality
Chris hasn’t done it while hanging on to
anyone’s coat tails. He’s made things
work, but with his father’s words offering
support and advice.
‘My dad (David) said that I had to make
my own way,’ says Chris. ‘They do say
that it doesn’t do any harm struggle and
that way you find your own way.’
Chris has certainly taken to a Lennon
& McCartney approach as he’s been on
quite a few long and winding roads that
has seen him take on farms at Oldstead,
near Thirsk; Appleton Roebuck, near
Tadcaster; and as recently as early this
year a move to West Blansby Farm just
out of Pickering in the North York Moors.
He’s established a name for himself in
sheep breeds such as Suffolks, Charollais
and Beltex, while also steadily building
his herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle and
has just started a fledgling Charolais herd.
Such is his knowledge of sheep breeding
he is also now close to launching a
new hybrid breed, the Yorkie.
Chris shows his pedigree
and crossbreed stock and
has achieved great results
all around the country,
including the Great
Yorkshire Show and the
East of England Winter Stock
Festival in more recent times,
but he is keen to stress that
there is one man who deter-
mines everything that he does.
‘The commercial man drives it all. At
the end of the day whatever we produce
is with the commercial man, or woman,
in mind. You’ve got to go where the
market is and they will pay a premium.
We produce pedigree stock, but we don’t
particularly like saying pedigree too
much because it can put off the commer-
cial buyer. If we get pedigree prices it’s a
bonus, but we don’t set out for that.’
‘You have to keep going forward. That’s
why we’ve also taken on Charolais cattle.
The breed is changing for the better as
breeders are putting more shape into
them and bringing them down in size.
Ultimately, the
way the beef
job is going, the
Charolais will come back
into its own because what they can do
is convert weight for age. The number of
days a beast is on a farm is critical to a
farm’s success and Charolais can convert
much better than others.’
Chris’ latest move, with his wife Lisa
and their three children, Alice (10),
Izzy (7) and Oliver (5) sees them now
decamped to the 300-acre West Blansby
Farm on the Duchy of Lancaster’s Estate
just a short distance north of Pickering
near to the North York Moors railway
line.
‘We’d looked at a farm the estate had at
Scarborough 12 months previously,’ says
Chris. ‘We missed out on that one but the
estate said they would find us a farm and
that’s why we’re here. It’s half-and-half
grass and arable at present.’
It’s also Chris’ biggest farm yet having
had a 60-acre farm at Oldstead and
around 100 acres at West End Farm in
Appleton Roebuck.
‘The way farming is going you’ve got to get
bigger to stay in the game. We don’t want to
get bigger out of choice but it’s just what you
have to do to provide for your family.’
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Continued on page 72
Tel. [phone] www.shearwell.co.uk