Rudfarlington Farm
Ultimate farming mix
at Rudfarlington
Chris Berry talks everything from horses,
sheep, pigs and Christmas with Mike Reynolds
» » HORSES ARE RIDDEN,
sheep are lambed, pigs are on
bed and breakfast, arable crops
grown, signs for hay, logs, rock
salt/grit, potatoes and eggs
are lavished at the roadside
- and for four to five weeks
every year this place is overrun
with Christmas trees being
purchased along with baubles
and other festive items from a
new Christmas Barn added in
2016.
Rudfarlington Farm on
Wetherby Road leading into
Harrogate is quite possibly the
ultimate mixed farm and this is
where Mike Reynolds has been
in charge since he was given
the tenancy at the tender age
of 18. He’s seen many changes
during his tenure of what was
initially a 200-acre tenancy from
Harrogate Borough Council that
saw his parents, Donald and
Constance move here in 1962 -
not least with the passing of his
father when Mike was just four
years old.
‘Mum, who is now 93, ran
the farm. I left school at 16 and
started working here full time. I
learned by my mistakes. I went
to Askham Bryan College on
day release. At one time we
had beef cattle, breeding pigs
and breeding ewes. Twenty
years ago I had the opportunity
to take another 100 acres on a
farm business tenancy and that
increased the farm to the 300
acres today.’
While Mike has diversified
the Rudfarlingon enterprise
with a DIY livery yard for 45
horses and sells thousands of
Christmas trees as well as other
produce not grown on the farm,
he has also maintained the
general farming interest with
arable cropping, sheep and
pigs.
‘I have 120 acres of grassland
and 180 acres of arable growing
100 acres of winter wheat;
50 acres of oilseed rape and
30 acres of winter barley.
Contractors come in for drilling
but I do all my own combining.
The land is really heavy and the
wheat came in at 3.5 tonnes/
acre last year. I’m growing the
feed wheat varieties Revelation
and Evolution this year and
winter feed barley variety KWS
Tower. The oilseed rape drilled
60 Spring 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
last
autumn
was
looking
good for this
year during winter.
I like to get harvest done and
drilled up as soon as possible
as the Christmas tree business
and the sheep start taking over.
In 2016 we were drilled up in
early September.’
The reason for Mike’s sheep
enterprise taking precedence
during autumn is down to
the Dorset breed that has
an interaction with the trees
business.
‘I have around 200 ewes
and 60 of them are Dorsets
that we lamb in November. We
lamb early so that when people
come to buy Christmas trees
they see lambs running about.
They have an appeal factor that
adds to the occasion for those
visiting. Dorsets are also really
good mothers and don’t take
a lot of looking after, but what
we hadn’t initially realised was
that they can lamb three times
in two years. We didn’t castrate
any of the lambs because we
thought the tup lambs
would grow quicker, but then
we found we had pregnant
ewes while still with their lambs
so we castrate everything
now. We purchase Dorset
replacements from Exeter.
Dorset lambs are ready for the
Easter market.
‘The rest of our ewes are
Mules and Texels and their
lambs are sold from July to
September. We sell all our
lambs at Wharfedale Farmers
Auction Market in Otley.’
While much of the previous
pig accommodation when Mike
was breeding pigs made way
for the livery yard there was
one pig shed that he felt was
too good to knock down.
‘We now contract rear for
Warwick Bailey at Ripon. We
have pigs here four times a
year coming in at 30kgs that
we take through to finishing at
100kgs and just above. I had
stayed with breeding pigs until
foot and mouth disease year in