The Farmers Mart Autumn 2017 - Issue 52 | Page 66

Stugdale Farm Autosteer proving the way forward at Flaxton Chris Berry talks with Jonathan Rycroft at Stugdale Farm » » ‘YOU WOULDN’T WANT TO go back to being without it.’ These are the words one farmer uses to describe becoming a GPS precision farming devotee. Jonathan Rycroft farms with his father, John at the now 155-acre Stugdale Farm, Flaxton that was bought by John’s father Frank in 1942. Frank tenanted the first three years having moved from a tenanted farm in the villag e. Stugdale originally ran to 106 acres. Jonathan also has share farming and renting agreements across four other farms taking the overall acreage to 1250 acres. Agricultural contracting sees drilling, combining and other work over 2000 acres. ‘We’re growing winter wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape, 64272 - TerryElseyTyres - 8TH.pdf 1 30/06/2017 15:56:09 C M Y T. ELSEY TYRES LTD “TYRES MALTON” TYRE, BATTERY & EXHAUST SPECIALIST CM Supplying quality tyres to Jonathan Rycroft of Stugdale Farm MY CY CMY K Tel: 01653 693830 / 694667 | Email: [email protected] www.terryelseytyres.co.uk 66 Autumn 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk spring and winter beans as well grassland for hay grasses making hay and haylage for the equine market,” he says. “Our wheats this harvest were Skyfall and JB Diego across 600 acres. They are reliable barn filling varieties. We operate across a varied land mix of medium loam, very strong and very tough soils and normally average around 3.5 to 4 tonnes per acre. Our winter barley variety this year was Cassia across 100 acres with 108 acres of oilseed rape and 130 acres of beans.’ Jonathan had been advised of the benefits of precision farming for several years before taking the plunge. ‘I was sceptical about precision farming but David Bradley of Russells was dead