The Farmers Mart Jun/Jul 2014 - Issue 34 | Page 49

HALL FARM

Brian’s wife, Ann has a word
of caution for those looking to
dip their toes in the water of the
pedigree breeding world.
“When you are going into
pedigree stock it is important
to realise that it is a long-term
commitment,” she stressed.
“It’s no good thinking that you’re
just going to get the best prices
at market because you have
pedigree cattle. It doesn’t work
that way. Some years you can
do extremely well and other
times not so well.
“What we have always liked
about Simmentals is that they
are easy to handle and achieve
really good weights. We have
also made an awful lot of friends
throughout the whole country
via the breed. We don’t do as
much showing as we used to
but I have done a bit of judging
and that keeps us involved.”
One of the reasons for the
couple spending less time
showing the cattle is that Philip
prefers sheep and agricultural
contracting.
“I went to Askham Bryan
College and I was encouraged
to go into Texels as we were
told that’s what sells best at
market,” he told me. “Ours is
a commercial flock using the
Texel tup and producing mainly
Texel X Mules. We lamb in two
batches in January and March/
April and have 270 breeding
ewes, of which 120-130 lamb
early. We also have 250 hoggs
in to fatten over the winter.

“We find that at present - due
to the good price of lambs - we
can buy replacements cheaper
than selecting and keeping
them ourselves. It will get to the
point where we breed our own
but we have currently being
buying ewes with lambs at foot
out of Gisburn Mart. We get
most of our tups out of there
too, where Rachel Capstick is
an excellent auctioneer.”
Philip sums up his agricultural
contracting side of the farm
business quite succinctly.
“I’ll do anything that pays!” he
laughs. “I have two balers, a
round baler and a quadrant that
I’ve just taken on from an