• FEB / MAR 2023
SPELLOW GRANGE 33 today . We were variable rate spreading in the late 90s , as well as autosteer when that first came in .
Dropping two major crops on their farm proved the catalyst for the brothers to go more strongly along the route of care for the soil .
“ We used to grow potatoes and sugar beet and we found that our soil , after growing those crops , wasn ’ t in the healthiest of states . We ’ ve taken far greater care of it since coming away from them .
“ The York sugar factory closure made the biggest difference because that ’ s when we gave up with growing sugar beet and that ’ s when we looked at going min-till . At the time nobody else in our area was going that way . Maybe with us being a bit younger and able to make our own decisions we were in a bit better position than some and perhaps with our age a more open-minded , but it was the time saving that we were sold on the most .
Richard is keen to stress that this does not mean that they don ’ t believe in conventional ploughing .
“ Some customers still like to do things the conventional way . As we all know , every field is different and some things work better in certain fields than others , whether that ’ s the way you plough , cultivate , min-till or simply the crops you grow .
“ At Spellow we always plough in front of barley on the rotation . We find it helps with wheat volunteers and brome control . We are on a 5-year rotation of barley , rape , wheat , beans , wheat – and so we have ploughing on our own land every one in five years .
Chris says their own land includes a bit of everything soil-wise .
“ And that can often all be in just one field . Our land types include sand , clay , peat and every soil type in between bringing us a variable yield right around the farm .
“ This year ’ s cropping at Spellow is 100 acres of winter wheat variety Gleam ; 60 acres of Kingsbarn winter barley ; 60 acres of oilseed rape ; 30 acres of spring beans which we will sow when the land is ready , and the rest of the land will be down to either grass , game cover , and stewardship .
The way in which Richard and Chris ’ business has headed in the past two decades has led them to keeping up to date with new technology , but it doesn ’ t mean , says Chris , that they have gone for absolutely brand spanking new equipment all of the time .
“ We tend to buy really good and still relatively new kit and we are fortunate that we are largely able to maintain our own machines . Our current tackle includes three self-propelled sprayers – Multidrives – specially built for high volume fertiliser , which came direct from
the manufacturer in Gloucester ; two New Holland combines both with 30ft headers from Russells at Boroughbridge who have been really good for us over the years ; and a fleet of tractors that includes two New Holland and two Massey Ferguson to suit the different jobs . We ’ re with Carrs Billington for Masseys , that have recently moved down to Thirsk .
“ The only job where we bring in other agricultural contractors is for baling – and we make silage or horse haylage for local livery yards as another string to our bow .
Richard and Chris ’ great grandfather Leo Tesseyman and grandfather Charles moved from Bilton in Ainsty to Spellow Grange in 1934 . Richard and Chris are all set to take the Tesseyman family into a fifth generation to farm at Staveley with their combined operation of farming , agricultural contracting and contract farming .
If you would like to find out more about what Richard and Chris can do for your farm , visit : www . cltesseyman . co . uk