The beef and sheep farm thinking outside the box
Louise Day’s enthusiasm is infectious – her passion for her animals, the farm and her customers is absolutely genuine. ‘I really enjoy chatting to all the folk who come to buy our beef and lamb, and I love it when I can recommend different cuts and the best way to cook them!’ she says, full of energy despite the early starts.
As if to prove her point, a regular customer arrives on a vintage tractor with his Bag for Life to fill up his fridge with hogget cutlets, Featherblade steak and short ribs from the vending machine installed in the old milking parlour.
Louise’s husband Mark’s family have farmed at New Sheepfold since 1989, and until 2017 it was a dairy farm. In 2018 Louise and Mark bought some Soays from St Kilda – and today there are around 40, all bred on the farm, forming the backbone of their commitment to preserve primitive breeds.
They’ve been joined by a ‘beloved’ flock of dozen Herdwicks from Hawkshead and Shropshires and approximately 400 commercial sheep. There are cattle too of course – a hundred Shorthorns and a Shorthorn bull, plus a herd of cheeky Golden Guernsey goats that keep the grass tidy round the holidaymaker’s rather glamorous shepherd’s huts.
The meat vending machine is a recent addition to the farm’s output, and open 8 til 8 – just turn up, choose which cut of meat you’d like, present your card and bob’s your uncle! ‘We’re all having to diversify and lots of farms have installed milk vending machines, so we thought we could do that but with our meat. More and more people like to know where there food is coming from, and here they can see the animals and how well we look after them’ says Louise.
She’s committed to the educational aspect of farming, and regularly takes school groups round the farm, and is often on hand to guide customers what meat to choose, including old school traditional cuts such as tongue, oxtail, brisket and skirt which are appearing more regularly on our tables.
It’s proving very popular with folk coming from far and wide – Louise tells of an older lady who travels every week for her lamb chops. Alongside the beef and lamb in the vending machine there’s Wolds Apple Juice, Bothams of Whitby biscuits, free range eggs, Yorkshire crisps and cakes from the Worsdale’s Farmhouse Bakery in Bedale.