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Farm Supplies the Northallerton operation has gone through a bit of a change that has seen things come full circle so far as their location in the town is concerned .
‘ We had moved our Northallerton business to bigger premises on County Business Park , where it worked fine but we ’ ve recently relocated back to the Northallerton livestock market where we now have a retail outlet within the car park area . It is run by Di Moore , an exfarmer , who joined our team a couple of years ago . Di is there on market days on a Tuesday and Wednesday and she visits farmers rather than them all having to come to us all the time . We pride ourselves on offering a good service .’
‘ We relocated the rest of the Northallerton team to Thirsk and it is they who now run the Lazer Tags operation that we see growing even more in the coming months and years . Farmers are now getting their tags quicker than they ’ ve ever had them before and because we ’ re using our own machine to print them the individual cost per tag is highly competitive . We also have a rep at Ruswarp Mart on a Wednesday . They can take orders from the Moors farmers the day before and have tags with them at the mart the next day .’
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Chris and Kate also plan to open a farm shop at their Thirsk premises . It ’ s something they ’ ve been considering for a while and meets a need in the area .
‘ There ’ s a very real demand for local produce from a farm shop that isn ’ t being met around here as yet . We ’ re looking at launching it this summer and it will provide yet another string to our bow . It will also be another business that will contribute towards the cash flow . It doesn ’ t matter how profitable you are on paper , if you don ’ t have the money in the bank you ’ re stuffed and the farm shop , country store , grooming service and garden plants are all areas where cash or card payments are made rather than having to send out invoices and statements and waiting for payments to be made .’
‘ I don ’ t know where we would be today without having made the bold decision to come to Thirsk and then the very bold decision to go into the country store business .’
Both Chris and Kate come from farming backgrounds . Kate ’ s father and brother run the family farm in Brompton by Sawdon and Chris ’ father and grandfather farmed at Wigginton near York . They ’ ve inherited their family ’ s love of livestock and have pigs , sheep , goats and cattle at Spring View .
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Let ’ s talk Whitebred Shorthorns which as many farmers will be aware is a selected white strain of the Dairy Shorthorn bred mainly in the English / Scottish borders region and its bulls had largely been used on Galloway cows to produce the popular Blue Greys . In 2004 the Whitebred Shorthorn breed was put on the Rare Breed Survival Trust ’ s critical list as an endangered breed with very few original bloodlines remaining .
‘ We have a small farm ,’ says Chris . ‘ And when we went to the Great Yorkshire Show three years ago it proved the most expensive show I ’ ve been to as we ended up buying two
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Whitebred Shorthorn in-calf cows . They are more rare than the Giant Panda right now and we adore them . This year we ’ ve been so lucky to have two heifer calves born . They are so precious to us and they do get mollycoddled by us but they are an absolute pleasure to keep and be around . We sold a bull calf to a local farmer last year and we have another lovely young bull that we are taking to the Rare Breed Show & Sale at Carlisle in the Autumn where we have very high hopes . The breed is now a passion for us – and one thing ’ s for sure . All our Whitebred Shorthorns will never be short of an ear tag !’ |