Farm Name
Ruston
Farm
Highlands
save time for
arable efforts
Chris Berry talks with David
Shepherdson at Ruston
near Scarborough
JAMES MORTIMER LTD.
Your local independent Grain,
Seed & Fertiliser merchants since 1869.
Buyers of all grades of barley, wheat, OSR, Peas, Beans and Linseed.
Suppliers of quality Cereal and pulse seed using the very
latest in seed cleaning equipment.
Grass, root and Environmental mixtures.
We are proud of our long established trading relationship with the
Shepherdson family, and wish them every success in the future.
Unit 13, Pexton Road,
Kelleythorpe Industrial Estate
Driffield
East Yorkshire
YO25 9DJ
Tel: (01377) 253314
www.jamesmortimer.co.uk
56 Spring 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
@j_mortimer_ltd
» » DECISIONS OVER THE BEST
way to take a farming
enterprise forward are made
with many considerations.
Location and land type
generally determine the main
theme and that’s very much
the case at Ruston Farm in the
pretty Wykeham estate village
of Ruston just five miles from
Scarborough, where David
Shepherdson is the third
generation of his family to
farm.
The tenanted farm acreage
was 350 acres when David’s
grandfather, Thomas moved
from Wykeham in the early
70s. That figure was doubled
in more recent times when
the family venture, that sees
David and his father, also David,
working together, took on the
next door tenancy of Manor
Farm two years ago.
It’s predominantly an arable
concern that the father and
son combination have added
to further in order to make
their living through a contract
farming side across 300 acres.
They also have a growing
Highland herd.
‘Contract farming helps
spread the cost of agricultural
equipment and we also do a bit
of hedge cutting in the winter,’
says David. ‘We have our own
Deutz combine harvester and
Deutz tractor from Hardwick’s;
and a Valtra from Scruton’s.
I’ve always like the tractor
side. We’ve switched over to
one-pass direct drilling this
last back end and purchased
a brand new Weaving drill. It
suits our land as I found out the
previous year when I tried it out
on demo. It yields just as well
as using a plough and power
harrowing.
‘Our land is thin limestone
but not the kind you get on the
Wolds. It’s limestone you build