Farm of the Week: Family who used to run their Yorkshire village pub now successful in cattle

Joe recalls The Ship Inn’s past.

“My grandma and granddad, ‘Sonny’ and Margaret, he was really a Joe as well, had the pub. It was a freehouse and quite popular. Granddad looked after the pub and my dad had the farm.

“I always wanted to be a farmer. When I was seven or eight years old I’d sooner go to market with my dad, Stephen, than go to school. Nowadays my mum and dad would probably get frowned upon for letting me, but I’d go to Bentham and Selby.

“By the time I was 12-13 years old I used to buy pet lambs from Bentham for £1 a-piece and then sell them down here for £10-£15 having reared them up. I revised more for my tractor test than my GCSEs.

Joe now has a growing reputation among local butchers for the beef cattle he produces at Ship Inn Farm where he and his wife Debs moved into in 2015, and he now rents more land for grazing land and growing maize and grass.

“I worked for a few local farmers after leaving school, and at Selby market, and for Guy Poskitt, then moved on to livestock transport for Alec Storey before going back to Poskitt’s after I’d met Debs.

“I’d been brought up with cattle. Dad had always had sucklers and had reared bought-in calves and I followed on from him after he retired. We had a bit of a change around on the farm and that’s when Debs and I moved in here and dad and my mum, June, moved next door in the house we’d had built on the farm.

“Dad helped me get started that same year when Debs and I moved in. I was still at Poskitt’s at that time and so I got dad to buy 10 calves out of Bentham Market for me to feed them up. He continued buying more calves for me, all about 3-4 weeks old and mainly black and white bull calves and helped me out feeding them.

“I got big fairly quick and I was turning over 300 cattle a year by 2018, rearing calves and taking them right through to finishing. I’ve since progressed and put other sheds up and done a lot of work around the farm and rented more land.

After three to four years of rearing calves Joe started going into buying bigger cattle as he was struggling to buy the numbers he then needed.

“I was having to go further afield to get the calves. That’s when I started looking at buying stronger cattle and decided to turn more cattle around a year for less time. I now turn around 800 a year and will hopefully get to 1000 this year. I intend on keeping pushing forward and I’m looking to get to 1200 next year.

“I have everything from Angus-cross to Friesian-cross bullocks to feeding cows, ex-parlour cows right through to the best Limmie feeding cows, best Limmie heifers and steers and Charolais. I still buy cattle out of the two markets I went to with dad as a kid, Selby and Bentham.

“I buy most of my stock at 18 months old and upwards and they will largely be here 3-4 months, but I will also buy some older stock, and some younger stock at 12 months in October that I will run over a winter then graze them for summer to finish in September.

When numbers started getting tight on buying store cattle coming up nearly a year ago Joe started his own suckler herd

“In July last year I started buying some cows. I’m now at 40 predominantly Simmental-cross cows that I originally put to a Limousin bull, but I’ve recently purchased a Salers from Terence Pye up near Yarm.

“I picked up a wagon load of Simmentals from a herd dispersal sale at Bentham from a farmer from Norfolk. I started adding to them by buying cows with calves at foot, or cows in calf, some of them Limmies; and another load from my neighbour Stuart Wood. Everything I’ve bought has now calved and I’m keeping the heifer calves from the Simmentals and putting them to the Salers bull I got two months ago out of Thirsk market.

“I wanted something that produced easy calving. I’ve now 12 heifers to put to bull, so we are already at 50 to calve next time.

Joe’s whole aim is to produce what his butcher customers are looking for, something that their customers will come back for time and again.

“I know what my customers want. The ration I feed my cattle reflects in the taste of the beef. I’m using maize, potatoes, bread and fodder beet.

“I’m keen on industrial food waste. I like the potatoes I get from a local farmer; waste milled bread from Tuckers at Shafton; and I will buy in fodder beet. I used to buy my maize too, but I wanted to be more self-sufficient with my feed and started growing maize last year. I grew 35 acres in 2022 and I will be harvesting 60 acres this year.

Joe said he’s now trying to source more land as his suckler herd grows and as he takes on more store cattle – and that he has a good man helping him with his land.

“I try to do as much as I can myself to keep costs down, but there are times when you need someone else and contractor Tom Dirom has done all my mixing and foraging for me. He does a brilliant job.

“And I have a good system here as all of the muck from my own cattle goes back on the land.

Joe said his trade is currently a mix of direct to butchers, including EV Slack of Wadworth, through Selby Mart to other butchers or selling deadweight to processors, but that he is always on the lookout for new trade - and new private purchases.

“I buy cattle off farms, either locally or through the Sell My Llivestock app, and I’m a stickler for everything being spot on. Every beast brought on to the farm is management tagged and because Debs does such a great job on all my cattle recording I’ve only to look on my phone to tell how long each beast has been on the farm and what age it is.

“Debs works with local butcher and my good mate Richard Keeley. We have two children, Tom (13) and Olivia (11). My granddad passed away year four years ago. My grandma lives next door. She’s now my head of security as she sees everything that comes into the yard.