The Farmers Mart Jun-Jul 2019 - Issue 63 | Page 46

46 COT NAB FARM JUN/JUL 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk Flushed with success at Cot Nab Farm Chris Berry talks with Mark & Lisa Megginson at the top of Garrowby Hill. CONVENIENCE has become a very public part of life at Cot Nab Farm that has an ad- dress of Bishop Wilton but is in reality high in the Yorkshire Wolds up Garrowby Hill. This is where farming couple Mark and Lisa Megginson have developed a company that since 2004 has seen them supplying special events such as wedding and festivals with appropriate toilet facilities alongside their existing farming enterprise. Mark has also found a convenient way of purchasing and running farm machinery too, through a close relationship with his cousin Richard Bell who farms 16 miles away at North Cliff near Market Weighton. It’s the way in which bank managers were advising three decades ago and it is allowing them greater flexibility and the ability to purchase machin- ery they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to afford on their own. ‘My grandparents Irene and Jack came to Cot Nab in 1956 having previously tenanted a farm at Fraisthorpe,’ says Mark. ‘In my younger days I lived at Uncleby with my parents Tony and Pam and sister Jane until we moved here when I was 7 years old and when Irene and Jack moved into Bishop Wilton.’ ‘Up to the year 2000 it was around 400 acres but then we had the opportunity to add a further two blocks that now take it to 600 give or take a few here or there. Around 500 acres is arable land with the rest rough grazing and dales land. Livestock was something granddad enjoyed but neither dad nor I ever considered ourselves stockmen, so we are all arable and have been for some years.’ ‘This year we are growing 180 acres of winter feed wheat varieties Costello, Gator and Graham that all goes into the ABN mill in Fridaythorpe nearby. We are at 800ft here and generally harvest in September although last year’s dry summer meant we were finished earlier. It can be difficult land to work in places but it is reasonably pro- ductive. We are growing 40 acres of winter barley and 80 acres spring barley both for malting if possible, going to maltsters Muntons at Flamborough; and 75 acres of oilseed rape that goes into Adam Palmer’s rapeseed oil business in Thixendale, so nothing travels too far. There’s also 40 acres of vining peas and 40 acres of potatoes, but we don’t get involved with the growing or harvest of the peas. We focussed on potatoes until seven years ago, but now let out the land for them. The rest of the land is in environmental schemes, being in an SSSI area and short term leys with lots of margins, nectar mixes and encouragement of wildlife.’ Richard and Mark started their arrange- ment over machinery from a very basic initial base of each having a machine that was better than the other. Due to their geographical locations they would need the farm machinery at different times and a separate limited company M&B Farming was eventually formed. ‘We had a sprayer and potato harvester that we both then started using rather than purchasing other equipment and it has gone from there. Richard also has 600 acres so the farms are of similar size but with different needs at different times. Today we both now have our own forklifts but all the other machinery is purchased through M&B Farming. M&B has a fleet of four tractors, Massey Ferguson combine with a 30ft header, Grimme potato harvester, 24 metre self-propelled sprayer and Vaderstad drill plus others. We are now way over capacity in some respects but having good kit means we can hit those weather windows.’ ‘We both pay M&B for usage of the machinery and the operator’s time and that ensures we can afford maintenance and reinvestment. We handle planting and harvesting of potatoes on land other than our own which brings our overall combined acreage to around 1400 acres across the two farms and a little more. Neither Richard or I could afford to run the kind of kit we have today without going this way. I also share a dryer with Adam on his farm.’ When prices were taking a bit of a hammering in the early-mid noughties Mark and Lisa saw a chance of moving into another completely different market when spotting an advertisement from a previous franchisee of The Convenience Company providing toilets for events.