The future of hill farming in the North York Moors

LUKE Doughty doesn’t need words to explain why he wants to be a hill farmer. The 17-year-old gestures with his hands as if to say ‘look around you’.

We are standing in a sheltered fold of the hills at Westerdale, high on the North York Moors. There was a thick, freezing fog on the drive here from York. But by mid-morning, up here, it has burned away. The slopes of the hills, golden in the March sunshine, are draped with rags of mist, but the views are stunning: across a narrow valley floor thick with clustering trees to the field boundaries running up into the hills – and the tops of the moors, browned with heather, beyond.

“I’ve always wanted to be a farmer,” says Luke, a former Lady Lumley’s School pupil. “I’ve never wanted to do owt else. It’s this –” he gestures again “– the sheep, the outdoors, the fresh air, the animals…”

On a day like this, it is easy to see why. But life on a hill farm is hard. There is the isolation; the long days of hard physical work; the poor income. The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF), which provides grants to support people working in the countryside, estimates that upland farmers earn on average only £6,000 a year.

Little wonder many younger people do not see hill farming as a way of life. Across the country, as many as 6,000 people left farming last year alone, the PCF estimates.

Five years or so ago, a group of North York Moors hill farmers became so worried about the shortage of young people that they set up an apprenticeship scheme. Since then, the Yorkshire Moors Agricultural Apprenticeship Scheme (YMAAS) has provided apprenticeships for 12 teenagers such as Luke: young people who could well be the future of hill farming.

Luke is among the second group of apprentices: one of five funded partly by a £50,000 grant from the Prince’s Countryside Fund. He lives in Rosedale, and although his parents aren’t farmers – his father drives a digger, his mother is a hairdresser – farming does run in the family. “My grandad used to farm. It was him that got me into farming.”

Luke’s day starts at about 7am, when he gets up to tend his small flock of sheep. “I have 14 ewes. I have to make sure they are all right, and they have water and food: silage or hay, and pellets.”

One day a week he goes to Askham Bryan College in Thirsk. Other than that, he’s up on the moors helping hill farmers look after their flocks.

Hill farmers like Peter Richardson. Peter runs a farm at West Northdale in Rosedale, where he has about 500 sheep plus some ‘followers’. As well as looking after his own flock, however, he also shepherds for other farmers on the Rosedale and Westerdale estate – which is why we’re in Westerdale today.

For sheep farmers, the year is divided into cycles. It will be lambing season soon, then clipping season at the end of July. The sheep – which spend most of the year up on the moor – also need to be gathered in four times a year to be treated for ticks, which can spread viruses.

Then there is winter. The young sheep born earlier in the year are ‘brought in’ for winter. But the older sheep remain out on the hills and Peter has to feed them every day – and keep a weather-eye out for snow.

“If it snows, you have to bring the sheep right down,” he says. “If there is a lot of snow you can’t get out to feed them. And if you have a lot of snow in drifts you can soon lose a few hundred sheep.”

The animals will try to head for shelter themselves. “But some sheltered areas can be a death trap.”

For Peter, having Luke as an apprentice is a real boon.

“We’re very lucky to have him,” he says. “He’s one in a million: a hell of a good help for me. I know I can ask him to go and do a job, and if I need half a day off, I know Luke is there.”

Peter is married, and has two daughters and a ‘little lad’. He hopes at least one of them will follow him into farming, but he does worry about the future. Not many young people seem interested. “I don’t see where the young ones are going to come from to look after sheep on the moor.”

Over in Farndale, Dennis Wilson’s family have been farmers for generations. “My father was a farmer; my grandfather before that,” he says, in a broad Yorkshire accent. He has a flock of sheep at Cote Hill Farm that has lasted three generations of his family.

With his wife and son Stephen he runs a number of small farms in Farndale, including Cote Hill and neighbouring High Wold, which is mainly dairy.

Farming is the only life he has known – and while times have been tough, he can’t imagine any other. “What else can I do?” he says.

He, too, is conscious of the lack of younger people coming into the industry.

Hill farming has changed during his lifetime, he says. It is much more mechanised. “And there’s not as many of us working in the fields now.”

But without farmers looking after the land, the landscape of the North York Moors, with its moorland and neat fields lower down in the valleys, would not be what it is.

Mr Wilson too is part of the YMAAS apprenticeship scheme.

Helping him out at High Wold Farm today is 17-year-old Robert Featherstone. He spends one day a week here, one day at college in Thirsk, and the remaining three days at other hill farms.

He’s just finished helping milk High Wold’s herd of Friesians, and is washing out the stalls. Like Luke Doughty, he’s always wanted to be a farmer. His own father manages a dairy herd at Coxwold. “He’s been milking cows since he was 13.”

When he finishes his 18-month apprenticeship in May he hopes to do further training – possibly at a dairy farm near Chester. Ultimately, he’d like to take on a farm of his own.

“Just a small tenancy, 100 acres or so, with a few sheep and a few cows.”

Yes, the life is hard, he says. “But I’ve always been used to hard work. I’m not interested in sitting in a chair in an office. I want to be out in the open, in the fresh air. It does you good.”

He accepts that times have been tough. Food is too cheap, with supermarkets pushing down prices. But he believes prices will have to rise to a point that allows farmers to make a decent living.

Up at Westerdale, Luke Doughty agrees. He, too, is nearing the end of his 18-month apprenticeship. But he’s already been offered a shepherding job by the Rosedale and Westerdale estate, which will enable him to keep working with Peter Richardson – a fact Peter is delighted about. “It’s so good Luke’s been given the chance,” he says.

Ultimately, Luke would like to have his own farm tenancy, probably up here on the moors.

Yes, times are tough, and there are many younger people that don’t want to go into farming. “But farming will have to have a future. We can’t live without farms. Somebody has got to do it.”

Fact file

THE Yorkshire Moors Agricultural Apprenticeship Scheme (YMAAS) is a group of North York Moors farmers who banded together five years ago to address the fact so few young people are coming into the industry.

“There was a real shortage of labour in upland farming areas,” says Nicola Welford, who farms on the moors near Whitby but is also YMAAS’ project director.

She knows of one Moors farmer who runs his farm by himself. “He’s not married, he’s got no children – he’s entirely on his own.”

YMAAS has been able to recruit 12 apprentices to work on moors farms. Five have been employed on 18-month apprenticeships with the help of a £50,000 grant from the Prince’s Countryside Fund.

The apprentices spend one day a week at Askham Bryan College in Thirsk, learning about livestock, crop production, and moorland sheep management. The rest of the time, they work on farms in the North York Moors.

They receive £580 a month, paid partly by the Prince’s Countryside Fund, and partly by the 11 farmers who are members of YMAAS.

There are real benefits all around, says Nicola. The apprentices get the training, qualifications and experiences they need. The farmers themselves get a much-needed helping hand. And the industry benefits, by bringing in the young people it desperately needs.

Already, Britain’s food industry produces only 60 per cent of the food and drink we need: the rest is imported. “Training young people… in agriculture is vital to preserving water sources, protecting wildlife and landscape and producing the UK’s food and drink,” says the Prince’s Countryside Fund.

Five apprentices is a small beginning. Across the country, it is estimated 60,000 new recruits will be needed in the farming industry over the next ten years. But YMAAS is just one of 60 apprenticeship schemes being supported by the Prince’s Countryside Fund.

The Fund’s grant for YMAAS is coming towards its end. But Nicola Welford plans to bid for another grant in April, to enable the scheme to continue.

And she also hopes to get more of the 100-or-so farmers working up on the moors involved in YMAAS.

• If you are a farmer who would like to join YMAAS, or a young person interested in an apprenticeship, contact Nicola Welford on nicolawelford@aol.com

• To find out more about the Prince’s Countryside Fund visit princescountrysidefund.org.uk