32 G. A LIDDLE & SON JUN / JUL 2018 • farmers-mart. co. uk
32 G. A LIDDLE & SON JUN / JUL 2018 • farmers-mart. co. uk
On the beet with the Liddles in Cawood
Chris Berry talks with Geoff and Graham Liddle of Town End Close Farm.
BUYING something no-one else has got can be genius or embarrassment, after all if no-one else has something there’ s often a very good reason right? But the words of Geoff Liddle’ s father still ring true in his ears even now at his age of 79.
‘ If dad was here now I’ m sure he’ d be very happy with what we, my son Graham and I, have done with our farm business,’ says Geoff.‘ He always said buying something unique made sound sense. He also said that whatever you buy is never too big.’
Today the Liddles operate across thousands of acres on all manner of share farming, contract farming and agricultural contracting agreements in addition to their own 320 acres at Cawood. Town End Close Farm in the village is the base for all their operations.
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Geoff’ s father and Graham’ s grandfather Stanley set the course for the family’ s future. Stanley returned injured from the trenches of WW1, took on land in Cawood and incrementally grew the acreage and more work.
‘ He started with horses and a plough in 1921 paying £ 6 10s for a plough and 68 guineas for a horse. He bought his first tractor an International Farmall A for £ 195 delivered from Bushell’ s in York in 1939 and that got us going on contracting. Dad and I started sugar beet harvesting together in 1956. I was 16 at the time when we bought our first sugar beet harvester a Peter Standen Junior from Goughs of Hunsingore. We ran it until 1961 but dad wouldn’ t buy another because there was nowt in the sugar beet game. That’ s when I took it on. I traded it in and bought a new Standen and set off from thereon getting a new one
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every two years changing manufacturers as I went along.’
‘ Dad’ s main enterprise for a while was threshing. He’ d always wanted a threshing machine and was threshing until 1968 when combines took over. Our first combine was a Massey 726 paraffin and subsequently we went with Claas. In those days we did all sorts of contracting for loads of little farms.’
Geoff started buying land around Cawood and recalls buying his first lot for £ 80 per acre. Graham joined Geoff in the family enterprise after leaving school and having studied at both Askham Bryan and Bishop Burton colleges.
‘ We began taking on contract farming arrangements for Henry Easterby at Tadcaster across 500 acres and then 200 acres for Tom Fawcett at Stutton. Since then we’ ve steadily expanded taking on other share farming and contract farming operations and we’ ve recently taken on another 900
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acres. In total we now farm in some way or another across 3000 acres.’
‘ Sugar beet is one of the main areas of our farm business. We run two 6-row sugar beet harvesters and the latest Vervaet is new to us this season. When the York factory closed we thought if we grew a bit more it would help out on the machine front making them more economical, so we took even more land on. It’ s a good crop that I can make pay through correct cultivation and achieve good yields. If you’ re getting 30-35 tonnes per acre average that’ s a good return. Of course it always depends on the price paid. The yield peaked at 45 tonnes last year, but I also had some poorer returns early on of 25 tonnes.’
‘ We’ re probably the most northern sugar beet harvester running new machines and we buy a new machine every year. The most recent season 2017-18 saw us harvesting across over 3500 acres and so it is vital we have machines that don’ t let us down and have fabulous backup support. We grow 320 acres of our own sugar beet and the rest as contractors. We generally grow four varieties including Cayman that has always performed well.’
Graham’ s commitment to the sugar beet sector sees him as the NFU’ s North East representative on the national sugar beet board.
Wheat, barley, vining peas form three of the other main crops with the Liddles operating across 1400 acres of wheat with varieties such as Siskin, Graham, Relay, Diego and Solo.
‘ It’ s all feed wheat and both my dad and I sell the corn between us. Most is sold to Campbell & Penty. Barley, both spring