Hill Top Farm
Situated in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, we are a traditional hill farm, farming in two valleys, Malhamdale and Littondale. The farm includes part of the National Trust's Malham Tarn Estate and some SSSI designations.
We farm approx. 400ha of Less Favoured Area land which is managed under HLS and ELS environmental agreements which control stocking densites, timings of grazings and prohibit the use of fertilizers and pesticides. We’ve farmed organically without certification for several years but are now in official Organic Conversion with The Soil Association.
The stock includes a breeding herd of 20 Pedigree Belted Galloway Cattle which are all put pure to the Beltie bull which results in 80-90 head of cattle on the farm at any one time. We also have 200 Swaledale breeding ewes, some of which are put to the Bluefaced Leicester tup to produce Mule lambs with the remainder put to the Swaledale tup to breed our own replacements.
Belted Galloways are naturally a very hardy British breed, originating in the hills of South West Scotland. They naturally suit our hill farm; they're capable of utilising rough bent grasses of the upland fells without the need for routine supplementary feeding. They live outside all year round and only receive supplementary hay or silage if weather conditions require it. They calve in late spring with the calves staying on their mothers until the following spring. High standards of animal welfare are extremely important to us and we believe our extensive grazing system allows our cattle long, natural outdoor lives and in turn allows them to exhibit natural behaviour as individual animals and as a herd. As part of the above scheme we are Freedom Foods approved.
The bullocks are taken to 4 years of age, fed and finished entirely on grazed pasture and are then marketed through our social media and website. We also sell directly to Chris Wildman who owns our local farm shop, Town End who is himself an approved supplier and butcher.
Having approved supplier status with Pasture for Life allows us to market our animals as being 100% pasture fed and we can tie in with this on social media.
Contact Details
Address: Hill Top Farm, Malham, Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 4DJ England
Telephone: 01729 830 320
Mobile: 07703 210 218
Email: hello@hilltopmalham.co.uk