Published by Farmers Guide, May 2006.

James Robinson.

A new twist on diversification

As farming businesses go, Lincolnshire-based JR & SV Robinson Farms is far from typical. For a start the business is only one generation old, going back 21 years to 1985, but more unusually the owners were newcomers to farming - almost to the point where the move into agriculture could be considered a diversification.
Based at East Torrington, near Market Rasen, the business is run by James and Sue Robinson and their son, Matthew, who is now responsible for most of the day-to-day management. Today the farm extends to 1,600 acres, although it started with a more humble 420 acres and has grown over the years as land became available in the vicinity.
A legacy left to Sue went towards the Robinson's first investment in farmland, purely because it was considered a safe asset. During the mid-1980s, however, high interest rates gave the pair the opportunity to buy out a partner they had in the land and they started farming in their own right. They subsequently moved to live at Collow Abbey Farm, from where they now keep a close eye on their business interests.
The land farmed by Robinsons is split into three main blocks, all within a few miles of one another. Each block of land has a dedicated set of modern farm buildings, including a grain store with built-in drying equipment.
Cropping is usually two wheats followed by a break crop. In a typical year this would result in about 900 acres of wheat, 350 acres of oilseed rape, 250 acres of beans and 75 acres of sugar beet (the holding has quota for 1,500 tonnes). All the crops are combineable, and are harvested by the unit's New Holland CR960 combine with a 24ft header.
Annual wheat production on the unit is usually about 3,500 tonnes. James said that no more than 25% of that is grown on contract, although it depends on the deals on offer.
The remainder of the wheat tends to be sold with the aim of maximising the price, although this year a good deal has been sold earlier than normal to keep the cashflow going while the Robinsons wait for their Single farm Payment. At the beginning of April, there was about 350 tonnes left to sell. Prices for last season's wheat have ranged from £64-70/tonne.
Oilseed rape is also sold on contract, with as much as possible going directly from the combine. This spring the Robinsons have 150 tonnes away at £153/tonne delivered off the field later this year.
Min-till cultivation is used as much as possible, although James said that as the land is quite heavy, it usually needs to be ploughed before the second wheat goes in. Most of the cultivation on the farm is done by a 450hp Case IH Quadtrac with a selection of Simba kit, including a unique 6m Free-flow drill with Horsch-type tines.
A 300hp John Deere 8420 tractor takes care of any ploughing that needs to be done, while two further 150hp John Deeres and a 120hp model provide the power for other jobs around the farm. In addition to Matthew Robinson, there are two other full-time farm staff to make sure everything on the unit runs smoothly.
The Robinson's farming enterprise is currently profitable and all that James and Sue really ask of Matthew is to keep it trading in the black. The land may be spread out, but so far that does not appear to have affected efficiency, although it does take a bit more work to plan the annual crop rotations so that the unit's storage facilities can be used to keep the travelling distance for each crop to a minimum.

Industrial fasteners
The story of how the Robinsons got into farming started when the couple, who are originally from the West Midlands married. At that time James worked for Readymix Concrete in Norfolk, but Sue's family, which was already involved in the industrial fasteners business, persuaded him to get into the same trade and start up on his own.
The result was a move to Lincolnshire and, in 1976, the couple started selling nuts, bolts, washers, screws, nails, rivets and a whole host of products for the engineering and construction trades from premises in Scunthorpe.
An off-the-shelf limited company gave the new business its name of Trevafield and the organisation has grown in the past three decades to the point where it now employs 40 staff, has two additional branches - at Hull and Kings Lynn - and a customer base that's spread across the UK.
From the start, manufacturers of agricultural machinery represented an important source of business for Trevafield, which still counts major agricultural machinery manufacturers among its customers. Whatever these companies needed, James Robinson would source the best quality products for the lowest possible price and in most cases this meant importing from the Far East.
"I've been doing business with countries in the Far East for more than 20 years now," James told Farmers Guide. "You've got to deal with the right people, just like you would in the UK, and you have to check out the factories and the quality if you don't want to end up with inferior goods.
"Some people think that everything coming from China and the Far East is cheap, but it's not. Occasionally you will find an item is cheaper to source elsewhere, so it's important to keep on top of suppliers around the world."
More recently, James has set up Agricast, which is a specialist dealer in agricultural castings for cultivation equipment.
"Many years ago, one of the major agricultural equipment manufacturers we were dealing with asked if we could source castings for them in the Far East," James said. "We found a supplier, indeed it's a company we still use today, and started importing cast rings for cultivation equipment."
This side of the business really took off about 10 years ago when an Indian exporter gave James the chance to take six full containers of castings that another UK buyer had failed to pay for.
James managed to shift the stock and saw the opportunity to sell a wide range of different castings from Cambridge rolls to press wheels.
"Then, about seven or eight years ago, we took this aspect of the business away from Trevafield and set up a separate warehouse and workshop," James added. "We called the separate business Agricast and now have the facilities to import and customise any profile of casting for both original equipment manufacturers and private buyers. We can even offer a fitting service to replace the rings on farmers' cultivation equipment using our own staff."