Beadlam Grange Farm

The Farm - The Story!

Beadlam Grange is very much a traditional family working farm. A mixed/arable farm of 300 acres, approximately 160 acres of combinable crops and 140 acres of grass to summer graze our livestock and make silage and hay. We have 70 suckler cows, mainly Limousin and Angus crosses and all offspring are reared for beef. We rear pigs on a bed & breakfast system! These are housed in a big shed on straw and we have them for around 8 weeks before moving them onto other farms where they are finished for pork. We also run a small flock of Mule and Charollais Sheep. Horses, dogs, cat and free range hens complete the livestock picture! In Spring 2005 we started composting brown bin waste for Ryedale District Council to save filling up the landfill sites.

The Rooke family came originally to Beadlam Grange in 1962. Marks' parents and their two young children came from a small farm in Heslington near York to Beadlam Grange as tenants of Duncombe Park Estate. The land was farmed pretty much as it is today - a mixed arable and stock farm but at that time grew potatoes and sugarbeet for the factory at York.

Since 1986 Mark and Jenny and children Helen and Peter have continued the farming tradition. We consider ourselves extremely lucky to live and work in such lovely surroundings and enjoy the benefits of living in a close rural community. Our hobbies include the traditional pursuits of hunting and shooting and over the years our ponies, horses and dogs have given us enormous pleasure.

Farming has seen many changes during the past 20 years, most significant being the drastic decline in farm incomes. Agriculture is now global and businesses are faced with cheap imports, much of these produced from much lower standards of animal welfare etc. which means that it has become increasingly difficult to run a viable farm business producing crops and livestock for the commodity markets alone.

To see a future for Peter we have created a whole new dimension! Diversify is what we farmers are continually being told to do. And so diversify we have into a Farmshop & Tearoom to sell our farm produce direct to the public. We also source fresh local food from our neighbouring farms in Ryedale, reducing food miles and ultimately helping to maintain more of the countryside in productive agriculture and allow us to carry on "the Farming tradition".