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.