The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 72

72 WEST BLANSBY FARM ‘We currently have 350 breeding ewes of which our pedigrees are 40 Suffolks, 100 Charollais and 40 Beltex all with the aim of producing quality tups and with the remainder being crossbred ewes. We’ve been very successful in selling Charollais X Beltex tups and have done a lot of winning in carcase competitions.’ ‘We have also trialled our hybrid the Yorkie. I’ve had the idea for five years and it has taken four years to implement. I’ve seen someone else doing it and it has given me the kick on. They are set to come on line to sell in 2021. We are putting the Beltex tup to the Charollais ewe and from there we are then putting on the Texel tup.’ ‘Dad has always instilled in me that ‘quality will always pay’ and that it doesn’t matter how bad the market price gets, you can always sell quality. ‘It’s not how much you make,’ he says, ‘it’s about being able to survive’. That’s now my philosophy.’ ‘We’ve been showing the crossbreds as ewe lambs and shearlings in the commer- cial ewe class at the Great Yorkshire Show and had champion in 2018 with a pair of gimmers. We had reserve champion with a pair of ewe lambs in 2017 and reserve again last year (2019) with ewe lambs. We also show in the Charollais and Beltex pedigree classes. We had reserve female champion with a Charollais ewe in 2018 – and we’ve done very well in the carcase competition FEB/MAR 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk too, we had champion carcase in 2016. We’ve also started showing the Aberdeen Angus at Harrogate and have help from Helen Cragg from Malton. She’s really good with the cattle.’ ‘The Great Yorkshire Show is a whole week’s activity for us. We take the caravan, but we never get a lot of family time there as we’re so busy,’ says Lisa. ‘The kids are all involved in young handlers’ competitions. Alice has got well Norman & Gray Ltd Steel Framed Buildings & Groundworks • CE Standard Steel Buildings • Kit Buildings • Extensions & Refurbishments • Full Groundworks • Bespoke Gates & Barriers • Feed & Handling Systems • Gantries & Mezzanine Floors • Concrete Floors Norman and Gray Ltd. are pleased to be working with Chris and wish the family every success at West Blansby Park. Contact us for a free no obligation quotation 01751 472231 Email: [email protected] Phil Norman 07974 827555 | Dave Gray 07974 821894 All our build projects include Health and Safety Management ensuring your compliance with HSE’s CDM Regs 2015 into it. I think they see their dad winning all these rosettes and fancy some for themselves.’ Chris moved with his parents from Yorkshire to a farm in Galashiels when he was very young and was there until he was 12 when a move was made to Malton in Yorkshire. Chris had a small flock of Border Leicester sheep when he was 12. He sold them when he saw they were going out of fashion and, at his father’s call of ‘you can’t put the money in the bank because it will disappear’ he bought four aged Aberdeen Angus cows at a dispersal sale in Perth, which started his herd when he was 13. ‘I’ve built them up slowly, as you can tell. We’ve culled hard and used a lot of New Zealand genetics that are now really coming to the fore.’ ‘I went away to boarding school in Durham until I was 17, which was the best place for me when I look back because I never wanted to go to school and I’d be half way across the field on the way to help a neighbouring pig farmer if I hadn’t. I just wanted to farm. At boarding school they had a herd of Highland cattle and I ended up looking after them. When I came home I worked on Winifred Farm in Amotherby and decided I didn’t want to go to college where I’d had a scholarship offered to go to Cirencester.’ ‘I ended up moving back to Goole, where I came from originally, when I was in my late teens, to what was my gran- dad’s (Bert’s) Boothferry Farm that my dad took on. Dad had about 100 pedigree Suffolks and was well up in the pedigree world. My dad and my uncle showed sheep successfully. Chris started working for Robert Huddleston at Howden who grew vegeta- bles for supermarkets – at the same time he began gathering up sheep and cattle on bits of land he rented; he then began contracting and led a lot of potatoes for Hobsons near York, while all the time building up his sheep and cattle. By the time he was 19 he had 120 breeding ewes and 30-40 crossbred cows as well as his few Angus. ‘I never thought it out, worked it out or costed it at all. I just got on with store cattle and trying to breed good fat lambs, at that time Suffolk X ewes back to a Charollais tup and always topped the markets in Bakewell and Bentham where I always felt the prices were better.’ ‘I’d met Lisa in Goole and we moved to Oldstead, where we had our first child, Alice. We were there three years. We lived in Husthwaite at the time. We then had ahouse and little yard in Little Habton near Malton where we had Izzy.’ ‘I’d almost given up on having a farm in my own right by this time. I’d driven a gritter on nights for North Yorkshire County Council and took a job working for Geoff and Ann Robinson at Newton Kyme, near Tadcaster where they had 1000 ewes and a beef suckler herd. Working for them rekindled my belief that I could make it work as they had done.’ ‘We applied for the tenancy at West End Farm and hadn’t heard anything for two months until out of the blue we had a phone call.’ ‘That was meant to be our forever house,’ says Lisa. ‘We had Oliver there, so that means we’ve had a child at every house we’ve lived so far – so watch this space!’ So, what now for Chris? ‘We’ve sold 75-80 tups recently averag- ing £600-£700 apiece and had champion native with a pair of lambs at the East of England Winter Stock Festival; cattle have taken off in the last twelve months; we sold six bulls in Carlisle in May last year averaging 3000 guineas. With me it isn’t just about fat lambs and good cattle – it has to be the best fat lambs and the best cattle.