Northern Farmer Awards 2024: Farm Manager of the Year finalists

The winners across ten varied categories will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony at Pavilions of Harrogate, the Great Yorkshire Showground.

Also to be revealed on the night will be the overall 2024 Northern Farmer of the Year, chosen by the panel of judges from the category winners.

Farm Manager of the Year, sponsored by Thorpe Trees, York.

Jonathan Fryatt, Lightwater Farms, Ripon.

Lightwater Estate covers approximately 750ha, of which 400 is arable, 100 is let grazing, 100 is woodland and 50 is renewables. One hundred and fifty ha of arable is on an FBT, the rest is owned.

On the estate the business operates a limestone quarry and a ready-mix concrete plant. There is also both a theme park and another quarry on long-term leases

From the 1980s until 2016, the arable land was in a share farming agreement with a tenant farmer on the estate, during which Jonathan was the sole employee on the arable business for most of the time. In 2016, when the share farmer retired, the estate brought the arable business back in-house with Jonathan as farm manager.

The aim was to improve the soil with straw for manure swaps, as well as look at the drainage. The estate started planting renewables ten years ago and has used miscanthus and willow on poorer areas of land. There are also two solar sites, one feeding into the quarry and one into the theme park.

Woodland areas have been entered into a higher tier stewardship agreement and new areas of woodland and hedges have been planted. Jonathan uses Gatekeeper for his farm records and has developed his own VR seeding maps using his experience of the land and previous yield maps.

Read more: Finalists revealed for 2024 Northern Farmer Awards

Two years ago Jonathan was selected to be the regional AHDB monitor farm for three years. Long term, they see leisure being the future of the estate post-quarrying.

Euan Fraser, Croft Farms, Croft-on-Tees.

Euan Fraser has been farm manager at Croft Estate in North Yorkshire since June.

The estate runs to about 2,600 acres including diversified interests and woodlands, and is owned by the Chator family who run it as a family partnership.

It is mainly farmed in-hand, with only one tenanted dairy farm left outside the estate’s management. The farmland is all arable, although the business has diversified into grain storage, Christmas trees and a motor racing circuit.

They also manage land outside the estate on farm business tenancy, contract farming and share farming agreements. It amounts to 1,200 acres.

Farming this area along with the 1,800 acres of cropped land on the home estate bring economies of scale, which helps both the estate and its partner businesses.

Cropping for 2023 harvest consisted of winter wheat; conventional (for home saved seed) oilseed rape in the ground, and a milling oat contract with Quaker Foods (the oats provide a break in their wheat, OSR rotation along with winter barley and spring bean areas). At Croft, they host NIAB TAG variety and pesticide trials, which culminate in an open day in June.

At Grange Farm they have 20,000 tonnes of grain drying and storage, which are TASCC (Trade Assurance Scheme for Combinable Crops) certified – this dovetails in with the Red Tractor Scheme.

The home estate has a mid-tier countryside stewardship scheme. They have installed solar panels on their grain store roof and continually update their carbon audit.

Ellen Fairbank, Harewood Estate, Leeds.

Ellen was brought up on the family dairy farm and attended Lancashire college of agriculture. As her only interest was animals and farming, it was natural to follow a career in agriculture. She was also a keen member of YFC.

Ellen manages the livestock/environmental farming operation works for Harewood Farming Company at Harewood Estate, her role mainly being to manage the environmental scheme covering the arable fields.

Harewood Estate covers 4,000 acres and consists of a mix of semi-improved grasslands, parklands, woodlands and arable, plus five tenanted farms. Since Ellen started at Harewood Estate in 2019, there has been a drive to develop the farming business, especially due to the loss of BPS payments and a desire to farm in a more sustainable way.

The estate is expanding its native breed beef and sheep enterprise which consists of pedigree Aberdeen Angus and Highland cattle and Hebridean sheep, alongside the red and fallow deer in the deer park.

In 2023, the estate entered into a higher tier stewardship agreement which runs alongside an existing mid-tier agreement. The higher tier agreement involves a huge meadow restoration operation for which Ellen is responsible, helping to restore nearly 1,000 acres of parkland to species-rich traditional meadows.

Their CS agreement has also given them the opportunity to offer education to local schools by visiting their farm.

Ellen says: “I am keen to encourage more women to work in agriculture as they will play an important role in the future.”