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‘ I like calving in a tight window and this year 70 per cent of the herd calved in the first three weeks , which was ideal .’
‘ All of our heifers go for breeding . We haven ’ t sold any for fat . Each year we select six or seven heifers we want as replacements and all of the others are sold to either our fellow pedigree breeders or commercial breeders . We keep eight to ten bulls to sell as breeding bulls with the remainder of between 15-20 fattened on land in Sabden near Clitheroe at two years old and finished off on grass at between 24-26 months going to Dunbia on their Hereford scheme .’
‘ We are high health status and because of this and their mothering qualities we have started selling heifers as recipients for other breeds . The Hereford is a cracking suckler cow .’
‘ When we select bulls , we are looking for correctness and temperament , keeping up our existing standards in both . For us it is all about improving the genetics . Our buyers can walk into a field and go over and touch the heifers . That ’ s a big selling point . We also don ’ t like to go too extreme on size because a lot of our dairy farmer customers for bulls don ’ t want that . They want conformation correctness and not for them to be too big . That easy calving trait is something that is very precious to us .’
‘ I spend a lot of time with the herd and their good nature makes them a joy to work with .’
The other farming arm to the business at Raikes Farm is the sheep . Mark and Gemma came with 80 – today they have 350 .
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‘ They are an important part of the farm enterprise . The flock is Texel X Mule that is now three-quarter Texel put to the Beltex tup . We keep eight tups and we lamb outside from April 1 with all lambs sold fat at Skipton .’
Mark continued working for Henry Rowntree until 2017 when his employer was selling up .
‘ He knew I ’ d be leaving at some stage and by then we were fully stocked
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here . We had spent four years supporting the farm and since then the cattle and sheep have supported us , along with Gemma ’ s business , our stewardship scheme involvement and the holiday cottage .’
Gemma constantly has her hands full running her business that relocated , which has become more sports massage oriented in recent times ; as well as having given birth to three
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children – James ( 6 ), Edward ( 5 ) and Jessica ( now 11 months ).
‘ I strained my ankle some years ago . I was doing some running and played netball at quite a high level . That ’ s how I got into personal training and sports massage . We have a gym here , but it is almost exclusively massage since COVID-19 . People sometimes cancel training , but I soon realised no-one ever cancels a massage . I get lots of farmers . You get themes . Lambing time injuries , quad bikes or they ’ ve been sat on a tractor for a long time .’
‘ The holiday cottage is a barn conversion that sleeps six . It ’ s self-catering and all en-suite across the three rooms .’
Mark has achieved his dream that he held from being at school . Mark and Gemma live in a beautiful part of the world . They ’ ve worked hard for it , but they are also so grateful for their neighbours and the local community .
‘ We came here with not very much ,’ says Mark . ‘ And we have had lots of help from everyone who welcomed us from the minute we got here . We ’ ve had times when we ’ ve needed help and people have just turned up . It ’ s a lovely community . Gemma and I are a great team and our boys are already helping too .’
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