The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2019 - Issue 60

54 NEW HALL FARM DEC/JAN 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk IT’S CHRISTMAS ALL YEAR ROUND AT BILLINGLEY Chris Berry talks with Christmas tree man Andrew Stenton. CHRISTMAS may be over until later in the year but for former successful cattle breeder and showman Andrew Stenton it’s part of his life every day through his Billingley Christmas Tree Farm enterprise seven miles east of Barnsley. Andrew is the third generation to farm in Billingley following his grandfather Charles Sidney Stenton and father Michael. The farmland is predominantly arable with 540 acres tenanted and a further 380 acres on differing arrangements including contract farming. Arable farming was never Andrew’s first love although today he enjoys choosing vari- eties. He very rarely sits on a tractor with his right hand man on the farm Chris handling the day-to-day cropping needs, but he’s always on the ball. ‘We grow milling wheat on our grade 3 land that is largely heavy clay over loam and hard work. We’re currently growing KWS Zyatt and can touch 4 tonnes per acre, but we averaged 3.5 this year. Our winter barley is California and spring barley is Laureate. We have an occasional bean crop and rotational grass that is made into hay and haylage. Oilseed rape makes up the remainder.’ ‘My grandfather had dairy cows but my father went more into arable and away from them. When I came back from college we introduced Charolais as my main love was livestock and I had wanted to become a Spald-FmMart-8th-YAMS19_1.ps 17/12/18 vet.’ Ironically Andrew’s success with breed- ing meant he never pursued his veteri- nary career. The breed took him to France and Ireland and his herd that reached 50 pedigree breeding cows saw him take all of the major titles throughout the UK in the 1990s. It was 2001 that brought about the change even though he didn’t come out of the breed wholly until 2004. ‘When Foot & Mouth Disease hit the country we were in lockdown, we had a yard full of prime bulls that had all been worth in the region of 5000 guineas apiece and now they only had fat cattle 17:30 It was Page a terrible 1 value. time for all pedi- QUALITY ASSURED AGRICULTURAL PARTS, TOOLS & EQUIPMENT — DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR FARM! S U P P LY IN G Call 01522 507600 for full details! www.spaldings.co.uk facebook.com/spaldings.ltd | twitter.com/Spaldings : gree breeders as well as all stockmen and women.’ Desperate times call for desperate measures or at the very least new ideas. Andrew recalled someone at the bull sales at Perth telling him about how he had been successful with Christmas trees. ‘We were looking for something to sub- sidise our income and make up for what we had lost. We were quiet so we decided to sell some Christmas trees. We started small, put a handmade sign on the bottom road and sold just shy of 300. I thought wow! all we were doing was buying and selling. We doubled it the next year and that’s when I began to realise the real potential.’ ‘We set up a wholesale company along- side our retailing and I bought big so that my price was cheaper and so we could make a better margin. That worked too and half a dozen businesses such as gar- den centres and farm shops trusted me.’ Andrew now plants and grows trees at Billingley and on various sites including one he and wife Sally own near Marr and others all around North Yorkshire. He also works as a consultant for estates growing Christmas trees. ‘We currently have 60,000 trees in the ground and we sell 15,000 per year. Chatsworth is our first delivery. We supply fashion retailer Fatface and our trees have appeared in a Doctor Who Christmas Special and on Still Open All Hours outside Arkwright’s shop. We had Steph from BBC Breakfast TV and Alex Jones from The One Show here last year filming for Shop Well For Less.’ ‘I enjoy working with like-minded people so if any farmer reading this is looking to get started with Christmas trees either just buying them in to sell on, as we did to start with, or interested in planting I’d encourage you to get In touch. We found another income stream and it has gone way beyond that now. To me it’s all about achieving the best you can whether with a tree, a cow or a crop variety – that’s where I enjoy the arable side getting involved with what works best.’ ‘We plant around 8000-10,000 trees per year and we will harvest at between 6-8 years dependent on size. Our own ground is sandy loam around the farm, which suits the Nordman Fir, the most popular tree. Norway Spruce is still to my mind the best tree and we won with one of ours in the Christmas Tree Awards in 2017 judged by fellow professionals.’ Andrew has set up a transplant tree busi- ness that sees him importing transplants from Germany and Denmark in spring and selling to growers in the UK. ‘I’ve learned on the job and alongside Danish farmers who have Christmas tree

The Farmers Mart Dec-Jan 2019 - Issue 60 | Page 54