50 LARK HALL FARM OCT / NOV 2021 • farmers-mart . co . uk
Today the farming enterprise now includes Longlands off Thirsk Road , Northallerton , and tracts of land at nearby Scruton and Warlaby as well as Lark Hall . The farmland extends to around 540 acres which saw this year ’ s harvest of 300 acres of winter wheat growing predominantly the variety Skyscraper , which is due to be sold to a local feed mill as well as home-fed to the poultry ; 70 acres each of winter barley , sold to a local beef farmer ; and oilseed rape sold to a poultry feed company ; and around 50 acres of maize which is sold to two dairy farmers . The rest is nearly all temporary grassland or woodland .
‘ My ambition is for the farm to become
net zero regarding its energy usage ’
‘ Our soil type is mainly medium loam and we ’ ve done reasonably well this year with first wheats achieving just under 5 tonnes per acre and some second wheats yielding in excess of 4.5 tonnes per acre . The oilseed rape did a creditable 2.1 tonnes per acre . It was all pretty good considering last autumn ’ s poor weather for crop establishment .’
‘ We ’ ve done far better this back end , like most , in getting next year ’ s crops in the ground .’
‘ Skyscraper was our favourite winter wheat variety this last harvest and we are sticking with that this year . We held some of it back from the previous year , had it dressed and used it for seed , paying the royalties , and it has proved very successful . It grows well on our farm .’
NEXT GENERATION Keith ’ s son Daniel came back to the farm after graduating with a BSc Honours Degree in Agriculture from Harper Adams University College in 2012 . The following spring was when the family took on Longlands Farm and in the same year expanded the poultry enterprise .
Daniel says ‘ my aim was to build up the poultry business , which I now run full time . The heating requirement for chicks is high so we also decided to install a specialist litter combustion plant that burns the previous batch of birds ’ manure rather than install a larger gas boiler or biomass plant that only burns woodchip . The manure or poultry litter is shavings-based material and is relatively dry . It saves us money as we create our own supply of fuel . It maintains my goal of on-farm self-sufficiency and moreover creates a favourable atmosphere for growing young chicks as it is an effective method of indirect heating . We have also installed 230kW of solar panels on the shed roofs to reduce our reliance on buying electricity and reduce our energy bills . Creating our own supply of heating fuel and electricity has to be the future and I ’ m keen to investigate other renewable sources . My ambition is for the farm to become net zero regarding its energy usage .’
Daniel is also keen to improve the farms soil health . ‘ We use digestate created from anaerobic digestion plants based in the north east and have constructed a lagoon which we use as a reservoir before applying it using the umbilical kit to our cereal crops in the spring .’
‘ We have noticed a much deeper and richer green colour with our winter sown crops by using the digestate . We are applying nitrogen , phosphate and potash all in one go as well as other
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