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that are mainly New Zealand Romneys and Exlana right across East Yorkshire . Six Valley Lamb is now a separate standalone business from the farm .” “ We don ’ t supply any one purchaser specifically . We work quite closely with the abattoirs on schemes . Our business is based around producing supermarket spec carcases of R3L , ideally 21 kilos dead on an R3L carcase . We have always tried to design Six Valley Lamb on trying to get the genetics to breed consistency into that carcase .
“ We ’ ve tried to simplify things with the Exlana and Romney . They give the carcases we want and are a bit more extensive . We ’ ve moved to outdoor lambing and everything those sheep eat comes out of the ground now . It ’ s an entirely grass or forage system .
Adam says he would classify himself as a very typical mixed farmer .
“ I have always enjoyed variety . I enjoy the sheep , but I ’ ve never necessarily been a full-time shepherd in my head . I enjoy the arable side as well , but I get quite tired of sitting on a tractor quite quickly . Fortunately , I have somebody very good who works on the farm and we manage it between us . He ’ s Harry Payne and keeps the farm working . Harry ’ s been with me six years and is a Kirkbymoorside lad .
Pigs also play a part at North Breckenholme . Adam started with pigs in 2005-06 . He was with ACMC first but has since been with Ian Mosey .
Adam is keen on looking at other new products and launched a company called The Honest Bean Company .
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“ I was
Pete Caley looking at creating a product that needed a protein source for it . A humus , and considered using chickpeas but that didn ’ t sit very well with me . I then found that field beans were quite underutilised in the UK and that became a niggle for me , so I spent a lot of time looking at that market place and started producing a fresh dip in 2019 , but unfortunately being fresh it was a little bit more of a challenge . It only had a 10-day shelf life and was quite a challenging market .
‘ Instead in 2021 we started supplying a roasted snack product , a high protein , high fibre snack alternative to crisps and nuts . We roasted and seasoned the beans and we are now looking to keep developing that business as well . It ’ s making a bit of a mark now . In 2022 we were on Aldi ’ s Next Big Thing . It was great coverage for us and now we ’ re starting to get more followers . It ’ s really positive .
Adam has spent three years trying to move down the regenerative agriculture route , which is something that really interests him .
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“ It ’ s having the ability to play with that and to look at different techniques and how we can do what we are doing a little more sustainably that interests me . We ’ ve not ploughed anything in three years . We are in an HLS scheme on a five year rolling scheme .
Adam took on the tenanted farm that was his grandfather ’ s ( Brian Megginson ) on his mother ’ s side , after his grandfather passed in 2000 .
“ It was and still is a relatively small farm by modern standards . We had about 300 acres arable land and just over 100 acres of dale land . Unfortunately , we were reduced a little by the time we took it over , so we went down to about 200 acres arable .
“ I spent much of my early and late teens and college years here over weekends and holidays with my grandfather . I got a love for farming through doing that . When I left school I did an apprenticeship , that it is called nowadays , but was called day release back then , with four days a week on the farm and one day a week at Bishop
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Burton College , before I went on to studying for three years at Bishop .”
Adam says that as farming was in a bad way when he came out of college he wasn ’ t at all sure it was his future .
“ I ’ d just come out of college and we were looking at a 180-200 acre arable business with 200 sheep on top of it and wheat was at about £ 65 / tonne . Nothing was looking particularly promising and I knew that I had to do something else to make the business work .”
“ I spent a long time looking at different things . I quite enjoyed finance , did some additional training at college , got a qualification in accounting , but quickly realised that it wasn ’ t for me sitting at a desk with a pile of receipts and doing other people ’ s books , but as a profession it put me in reasonable stead understanding stuff moving forward .
“ We have since taken on a little more land on the home holding , another 160 acres , so we are back up to that 400 acre mark , all tenanted .”
Adam says he has always had great support from his parents ,
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from his wife Jennie and from a mate who lives in Thixendale .
“ Although I pretty much dived into farming myself my parents Ben and Esther have always been very supportive in everything I ’ ve done . They still live in Cranswick , but dad now works here having had a career as a master mariner . He ’ s really handy and whenever he came back from being at sea he would do a number of maintenance projects here . When he retired from the sea in 2016 , he came here full-time and now looks after the technical side of the rapeseed oil business and the food safety side .”
“ Jennie and I married in 2008 , but at the time the business wasn ’ t something we were doing together , as she worked in theatre . She ’ s now very involved in the marketing and sits on the board at Deliciously Yorkshire .
“ A good pal of mine , Paul Scothern , has been involved in the rapeseed oil business since we started . He ’ s from a building background and lives in the village .
“ Charlie and Ivy are now 14 and 10 and Charlie is fairly keen on the farm and has an agricultural mindset .
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