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