Farm of the Week: Fourth generation of cattle-raising family who were nearly wiped out when a bomber hit their farmhouse in World War Two

The Hildreth family lineage of those that had moved from Hessay was very nearly wiped out that evening as husband and wife, George and Mary Jane Hildreth and their son 23-year old Kenneth lost their lives.

David Hildreth is the fourth generation to farm at Grasslands, with his parents John and Linda. David said his grandfather survived to tell the tale.

“Our farm backs on to the airfield and that night the Halifax was on its fourth attempt at landing in tricky conditions and got it wrong, resulting in the loss of the crew and my great grandad, great grandma and great uncle who were in the farmhouse. My great aunt Betty survived and tried to help but was badly injured. My granddad Noel survived as he was outside checking the stock.”

Grasslands Farm today plays host to much more welcome visitors who arrive in a much more sedate fashion than that fateful evening.

“We started hosting school visits in April this year,” says David. “We are in a fantastic location being the first village out of York and only 10 minutes away from several local schools. I see it as an opportunity to engage young people to get out on to a working farm and see how food is produced.

“It’s an option in our Countryside Stewardship agreement that will hopefully also bring additional revenue to the farm while only costing schools a short bus journey. We grow cereal crops and have a pedigree Limousin beef suckler herd and poultry, so there is a lot that students can learn about the farm.

“We’ve had a fantastic response from teachers and students who are all keen to come back and we have also hosted the national educational charity Country Trust that allows those least able to access the countryside.

David and his parents are also bringing Grasslands closer to the people of Rufforth with the launch of a new beef box enterprise that has already proved popular.

“Our beef is totally traceable as we take everything through from start to finish. It’s something that we really can control and shout about. We only started with our new meatboxes last week.

“We posted what we were doing on our Facebook account to our fellow Rufforth residents and we sold out immediately. People around here have always known what we do and they can see what we do. We like to show others that we look after our animals and care about them too.

David said his father John handles most of the work on the farm as he holds down a full-time job at Askham Bryan College.

“Myself and my parents are partners in the business. I give as much time as my full-time job allows. I’m on farm in the evenings, weekends and any of my leave is on the farm. I am fortunate that the job I have is fairly flexible and that I can organise for time when I can be on farm during the day for such as silaging, but in the future my aim is also to make the farm able to afford more of my time.

Grasslands Farm runs to 170 acres and features a suckler herd of 45 Limousin cows with around 120 cattle on at any one time.

“We are a lowland grassland mostly livestock farm with a suckler herd and with 35 acres of cereals. It is quite heavy working land and dad has always said it is called Grasslands Farm for a reason, because it is not prime arable land. We grow wheat to sell on, barley as cattle feed. We have temporary grass, silage land and further pasture.

“Every animal on the farm is homebred apart from a breeding bull and nearly everything is taken to fat. We sell bullocks and heifers at York and bulls at Selby livestock markets at around 22 months usually after two seasons out at grass. We fatten them on our own homegrown ration.

“Our heifers are usually put to the Angus to make first time calving easier. We calve in two blocks starting in October and in March and use both AI and natural bulling across the herd. Our current stock bull is Loosebeare Oly from Exeter. We picked him up at a Limousin breed sale at Carlisle. We breed all of our own replacements.

David is proud of his father’s record at the York Christmas Primestock Show and Sale.

“Dad has quite often taken the homebred trophy. There are not so many that do what we do, taking cattle right through from start to finish and there is great pride in that.

“When I was younger we used to milk dairy cows. We packed up about 15 years ago for various reasons that included the reinvestment that was needed, dad needing a new pair of knees and because I wasn’t particularly bothered about milking cows.

‘We had a herd of 70-plus Holstein Friesians and would have had to seriously increase numbers, take on a lot of debt and we would have needed somebody who was keen to milk. The price was also poor at the time and it didn’t make sense.

“Dad had milked cows for 50 years and mum and I thought he might struggle to adapt but his passion is cattle whether beef or dairy and he moved straight on to the Limousins. We already used them with dairy herd.

David never saw himself as an automatic shoe-in for the farm, in the way of many farmers’ sons.

“When I went to university at Newcastle I didn’t think I’d want to go back to the farm. I studied countryside management and I have worked at Natural England, Stephensons in York, Historic England in York and now Askham Bryan College.

David’s day job sees him in a perhaps an ideal position for analysing and assessing where Grasslands Farm should be heading in the future.

“I work on the annual Farm Business Survey that has been going since 1936 and is conducted nationally. We cover 300 farms in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire and I oversee the collection of financial data for 50 of them. It takes in income streams, sales, costs and what is going on. It provides feedback to the farmers to see how they compare to other years and other farmers. What’s gone well, not gone well, and in so doing can help with decision making for the future.

David and his parents’ recent moves into hosting visits and selling beef boxes are just two ways in which Grasslands is seeking to provide additional income for its future. David marries his fiancée Grace next year. His sister Clare lives in Tockwith.