A YORK farmer is selling off his modern equipment and returning to traditional 19th century farming methods.
Steve Newlove, who runs Thorpe Hill Farm at Thorpe Underwood, near Green Hammerton, is buying two shire horses to replace his tractors and other equipment.
He will also use traditional crop rotation instead of artificial fertiliser to grow wheat, barley, oats, turnips and potatoes, as well as mustard, a high-nitrogen crop. The old-fashioned farm will also be open to the public and schools from July, and will feature a range of native British animals, including a flock of Ouessant sheep, the smallest breed in Europe and a deer park of rare breeds, which have been a feature of the farm during its history, which dates back to 1790.
A farm shop, children’s adventure activities, a maize maze and wetland with bird hide are also expected to open by the end of the year.
The site is already of historical importance with Iron Age, medieval and Roman settlements being recorded there.
Steve’s family moved into the 111-acre farm in 1982, when it was run as a pig farm with 850 sows at its peak.
In the last few years, when the credit crunch hit pig farming, it started to grow crops using modern farming methods.
Chris, 31, who is now taking the business forward, said he was inspired at a young age to run a heritage farm.
“I went on holiday to Scotland and we stayed on a farm which had a little open petting farm and I really liked the idea.”
He said machinery was outgrowing family farms.
With equipment like combine harvesters costing about £250,000, family farms use contractors or are being sold as a nice house in the country, with farmland sold to help large farms expand further.
“We don’t want to be anything other than farmers,” he said.
He hoped his traditional farming methods would in fact enable the enterprise it to be more viable.
He said as the cost of diesel continued to increase, he hoped to save money by using the horses instead of machinery.
Equipment including combine harvesters, tractors, haymaking equipment and trailers, as well as livestock, will be auctioned off by auctioneer Chris Clubley on June 25.
The auction also includes vintage collectable items the family has acquired over the years, including an old potato spinner and a travelling showman’s living wagon.
The old ways
FARMERS have been diversifying for a good while now – some into bed and breakfast, others letting their buildings as offices. But Steve Newlove reckons there is another way.
He is going to auction off his modern farm equipment and, with the proceeds, buy vintage machinery to be pulled by his two Shire horses.
Steve says his land will be turned into an educational heritage farm using nothing but traditional methods and, like York’s Maize Maze, we think it’s a novel and interesting way to diversify.
We wish Steve luck in his new ‘old’ venture.
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