Member profile - Yorkshire farmers Tim & Lynne Lindley

‘People started asking for geese - we thought we’d better do something about it’

Customer demand led Tim and Lynne Lindley into geese. They’d been producing turkeys for Christmas for more than 30 years, supplying farm shops around Wakefield, Dewsbury and Huddersfield.

“About five years ago we started receiving requests for geese – so we thought we’d better do something about this,” says Lynne.

In the first year they reared 100 geese, all were sold quickly and now they’ll be more than 400 for Christmas this year. Around half the geese are sold to farm shops in the area with the other half going to farmgate customers.

The farm is located at Thornhill between Wakefield and Huddersfield in what was once one of the country’s largest coal mining areas. Today the National Coal Mining Museum is only a few miles away.

The geese and turkeys fit easily into the regime on the arable farm growing some 200 acres of wheat and oilseed rape. Home grown wheat provides a major part of the diet for the birds.

“The geese are easier than the turkeys because they like being out to graze. They don’t like being shut up and we only bring them in at night into a compound.”

At Christmas their family all help with the processing. Son Tom, who is studying engineering at Bradford University, also devised a computer programme for their online sales. Daughter Eleanor who is an accountant helps in serving customers in the hectic days before Christmas.

Lynne says it is only apprehension about cooking a goose for the first time that stops more people from choosing the bird – so she provides lots of advice based on her own experiences in the kitchen.

She gives hints, too, on using goose fat in cooking. “Goose fat flies off the shelves – we simply can’t produce enough,” she states.

Tim also serves on the council of the Goose Sector Group of the British Poultry Council. Both look forward to the annual farm walk in October which they have found very helpful in gleaning tips to help with their own business.

Read more about the Lindleys - www.hostingleyfarmfreerange.co.uk

Tim Lindley with his month old goslings

Lyn Lindley