GETTING the word out about where food comes from and the role farmers play in doing so is something that Martin Stephenson would like to play his part in assisting .

Martin farms at Danebury Manor Farm , Flixton where he and his wife Deb run their mixed farming operation that includes growing cereal crops , finishing cattle and overwintered store lambs and let a bed and breakfast enterprise , as well as being the new home of his GM Stephenson machinery dealership that was based at Southfield Farm for many years .

“ I don ’ t think that as farmers we engage with the public enough ,” says Martin . “ We just don ’ t . Deb and I have just been to a storage conference at the NEC in Birmingham . I got talking to guys from all over the country that I ’ d never met

before and as I told them what we do they wanted to see . They haven ’ t a clue about farming but when I talked they were interested .

“ I ’ d like to engage a little more with local schools and have farm visits here . Some of the public have absolutely no idea where their food comes from . Chris our livestock manager is also very keen and with what we ’ ve done to the farm since coming here , putting up new buildings and such , we ’ re now geared up for doing so . We ’ ll maybe aim for having an Open Farm Sunday next year .

“ I like people to have a look around and often even while they take a look around the tractors and machinery that ’ s what they do , but I ’ m interested in getting the message out to those who really don ’ t know what happens on farms and how such as their breakfast cereals , bread ,

biscuits , beef and pork is produced . Showing people where it all comes from has to be the way to go , and it ’ s also a good reason to keep the place tidy .

Martin was chairman of the East Coast branch of the NFU from November 2020 to November 2022 . During his term of office he and his family held a fantastic fund raising auction and party in May 2022 raising over £ 25,000 . He ’ s held other events previously in years gone by , raising funds for charity including bringing the famous country band The Wurzels up to Flixton . Recently Danebury Manor hosted a number of his farming colleagues .

“ Just about six weeks ago we hosted an NFU Farm Walk ,” says Martin . “ I ’ m quite happy with what I ’ ve done while I was chairman , but I have no ambition to go on to do anything more in terms of holding

any other office . I ’ d just like to think we made some kind of a small difference to maybe one or two people ’ s lives by what Deb and I achieved by hosting the auction and party last year . It was one of the things I wanted to do whilst I was chairman .

Martin and Deb ’ s journey to running their own farm has been achieved through hard work , long hours , years of building up pockets of land , the farm machinery business and several other ventures that include a storage business in two locations .

“ It is a team effort here ,” Martin is keen to stress . “ Deb looks after all the administration and paperwork for the farming operation , and of course much more besides including keeping me in check ; we have a cracking office manager , Debbie Scaife ; a brilliant livestock manager , Chris Moore ; and a great joint venture with our former employee Steve Winkfield on bed and breakfast pigs .

“ We ’ ve also our children Harriet ( 23 ) and George ( 22 ) who have both been travelling , and working while they were doing it , who are both now back . Harriet was in Australia and George in New Zealand . They are both more than capable of handling any job around the farm , in fact there ’ s only me out of the four of us who doesn ’ t have an HGV licence . We all interchange where we need to between the machinery and the farming side and we ’ re all just as capable of dressing up to the nines to go out or putting on a pair of overalls .

Martin is from Seamer originally and his father had a 40-acre rented smallholding that he has kept hold of in Seamer village . Martin says his buying and selling of farm machinery started early .

“ My father Bernard worked for Boulton & Cooper who ran the old Seamer Mart and I went to quite a few farm dispersal sales . I started buying one or two little bits when I was in my early teens . It just seemed a natural thing to do . Like farmers ’ kids would buy one or two sheep . I ’ d buy something like a little 3-furrow plough or a Fergie and it just went from there . I bought and sold things while at school , so I ’ ve always probably been what you call a wheeler dealer .

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