The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2015 - Issue 42 | Page 58

Green Farm Hellifield Yorkshire’s largest Highland fold Chris Berry talks with Robert Phillip in Hellifield, who swept aside family traditions with a bold move. »»Buying a couple of Highland cattle for what he regarded as a bit of fun and more as a hobby than having any great plan, actually proved to be the catalyst for Robert Phillip’s future 13 years ago. Three years later he left behind dairy farming, sweeping aside decades of family tradition at Green Farm in Hellifield. Today the farm is wholly run on the Scottish breed; Hellifield Highland Beef is well respected and Robert runs the largest fold in Yorkshire. “I went into them never ever thinking we’d be doing what we are now,” he explained. “It was a friend who bought the first two for me out of Wales. The two cows both had bull calves so I then bought a bull. We currently have around 350 head from 80 pedigree cows and everything is bred pure apart from 15 or 16 that we put to the Simmental bull. We sell stores from these at Skipton and our pedigree stock goes to Chelford in April. The vast majority of our sales are to private buyers who come to the farm. We’ve exported stock too. This year we sold out of yearlings because demand has been so high. “Our replacement rate is negligible as the cows just last for such a long time although next year I have a lot of heifers to come in. Our oldest cow is 17 and she’s back in calf for 2016. We send one beast to abattoir every two weeks for the shop and t