Hob Moor 9th November 2022
Good evening.
My name is Simon Dunn and I farm the stray land for YCC which not only includes Hobmoor but Walmgate, Bootham and Monkscross a total of 270 acres.
I grew up on a hill farm on the NYM and started agricultural contracting from the family farm. Still operating today and employing 10 people. Our services include Lime and Fertiliser spreading, cereal farming, self-storage, and app development work.
In 1994 I took on the license and management of Strensall Common from the MOD and then Worldsend a neighbouring piece of land belonging to Forest Enterprise. The farm Lambshill had 500 hefted swaledale ewes. My parents retired to Lambshill to run the enterprise.
For those of you who know Strensall Common it has shooting ranges and fathers main job every day was to clear the ranges before 8.30am when shooting started.
After foot and mouth in 2001 the ranges were fenced off from the rest of the common, so the sheep were no longer needed to be moved every day.
At Strensall we have a conservation group meeting twice a year has it is some of the rarest lowland heathland not only in the UK but Europe as well. At this meeting we have approx 25 individuals who all have an interest in the common. From birds, fungus,ponds,dragon flys plus the Dark Bordered beauty moth which is basically only found at Strensall.
It was at one of these meetings that Bob MIssin (York University Professor) who was the asked if we would be interested in taking on the strays for YCC. This was due to all our work on the common with conservation and working with all the agencies.
When we took on the strays they had a lot of cattle running on them all through winter and were in poor condition.Hobmoor had a particular bad weed problem with thistle and ragwort. Also, the fencing left a lot to be desired.
The farming process all started in 2010 after an extensive fencing programme.
We topped and sprayed the bad areas of weed in the first year at Hobmoor.
After the first-year grazing Hobmoor YCC entered into a 10 year High Level Stewardship Agreement.
I as a tenant had to conform to all the management prescription lists
Stocking Density, Weed Control, Hay making in North Moor Lane all out of my control.
We can’t control weeds or supplementary feed the stock without full written consent from Natural England and a derogation order.
We have adapted our farming system to work in with the strays and Strensall common.
We introduced cattle to strensall common back into 2010 which had been at least a 30-year period with only sheep grazing. As a result, all the fescue grasses had become very tufty and made walking very difficult. Today we run all our 70 strong Aberdeen Angus suckler herd in the danger zone, on Strensall Common. We do this because parental care in mammals turn this placid cow into a killer when her calf arrives. The cows have contributed greatly to the vibrant wildlife now found on the common. The fescue grasses are trampled with their feet allowing the sheep to graze more effiociently.
When we wean the calves at 7/9 months, they will end up on one of the strays for the following summers. We also buy store cattle to fulfil our grazing obligations they are normally purchased at 9-12 months of age.
The breed we choose are best suited to the conditions that is why we concentrate mainly on the Aberdeen angus but will also have Hereford, limousine and Belgian blue breeds. We try and keep to dairy bred animals as they’ve been bucket fed and are far quieter. Suckler bred animals that haven’t had contact with people are not what we want on the moor
The cattle are normally checked every day by my stockman Andy Storrie who lives at Lambshill along with this we also have a health plan provided by the vets. The plan covers our flock of 400 ewes and 300 head of cattle.
With the other 3 strays 3 hours a day can, be taken just to check the stock on the strays obviously dependent on the traffic.
We have to deal with plenty of hassle especially when the cattle first go out to pasture in the beginning of May.
People or joe public don’t take well to been followed by 70 cattle and we often have messages to deal with.
The last one I dealt with was a lady walking on Hobmoor and was accosted by the cows and she ran for her life! Turns out it was the first time she had walked on the moor for 2 years. The cattle can be very inquisitive and if you run away, they tend to follow you and you can get knocked over.
We also have problems with limping cattle especially going from straw-based housing onto grassland and they can get knocked during transport. We try to ensure we have few problems because we don’t want the phone ringing.
As regards the nutritional value of the stray we expect the cattle to put 100kg body weight on in the summer. This will be 60% of what we would expect from normal modern grass leys.
This year as you’ll all be aware we had serious problems with the cattle grids so bad we had to remove them.
Work carried out by YCC to remove barriers so tricycles could ride through the grids removed a visual obstacle and as a result the cows could see clearly to the other side. With the shorter than normal grids they were able to skip over them easily.
When the grids were made good, we decided to bring fresh cattle back has we find once animals find their way out, they will take some stopping.
When the cattle are taken off the moor, they are taken back to our farm at Studford where I live where they are housed and fed silage and whole crop barley. When they get to approx. 18 months old 500kg we sell them to fattening units through local auction marts then the animals will be fed an intensive diet cereal based to get too approx. 700kg to enter the food chain.
Concerns going forward it is very marginal grazing the moor from a farming point of view. However, it would soon turn into scrub land.
Our area payments are been dramatically reduced and we still don’t have an alternative to replace the BPS. This will make it uneconomic to farm in two years’ time.
We are being encouraged to diversify our farm businesses to support our income. We have started a self-storage business back in 2017. If we hadn’t done this, we wouldn’t be putting cattle on the stray.
We have had an animal shot with a crossbow at Bootham. This made the daily mail newspaper around 2012
Inflation that we are dealing with in agriculture
Fertiliser has gone up 300% in the past 12 months
Fuel has doubled
Energy prices have up280%
Machinery costs including spare parts 20%
Food is going to get far dearer than it is now. Most of our costs have increased substantially.
If the price of food doesn’t go up and the subsidy payments carry on been reduced, we won’t be producing. At this moment in time Farmers are not filling their chicken sheds because the new contract doesn’t cover the increase in costs. Egg producers are not replacing their hens because contracts are unsustainable. A reduction of 8 million hens is going to lead to less eggs.
Just a few things to think about. The UK has the third cheapest food in the world has the amount of disposable income spent on food.
I want to farm but at this moment in time we are working all year with no guaranteed income. This is like working for a year and we will negotiate your salary at the end of the year. You want 50k.
Any questions?
Friends of Hob Moor 