BEN Hebron is the kind of young man you would expect to be a farmer.

Born and bred in Rosedale, farming is in the blood of this 21-year-old and both his grandfathers are still farming - Bill Hebron in Rosedale and Herbert Flintoft in Westerdale. With their help, Ben has established a small Aberdeen Angus-cross suckler herd. However this is only a small part of this young man's business portfolio because Ben Hebron is the main driving force behind the Polaris ATV dealership and contracting business, Moorland ATV.

Whilst still at school, bucket-rearing calves for sale generated enough income to fund his passion for quad bikes. Quad bikes and young lads seem to go together, especially on moorland farms where they have taken over many of the jobs which used to be done by the old grey Fergie. After a season bracken spraying for a wage for a local estate, Ben managed to buy his first machine and spray unit and began contracting on local farms and estates (at the same time studying for his A levels!).

Once other farmers and organisations realised the potential of the quad bike-mounted sprayer to deal with infestations of bracken, ragwort and other grassland weeds, demand for Ben's services grew.

Today, Ben does contract spraying for farmers, local authorities, equestrian centres, and quarries all over the Midlands and the north of England. As this work has grown, Richard Dent, who farms with his parents on the other side of Rosedale, has started to help Ben on the contracting side during their busy times. In addition to spraying bracken and ragwort they also spray Roundup prior to tree planting and do a lot of other forestry work, such as fence line spraying.

Sometimes booms are used, but much of the work is done with up to four hand lances from each quad-mounted sprayer. This enables large areas of often very difficult terrain to be covered very quickly. To help with this work, Ben tries to use local farmer's sons (who seem to have the most aptitude) as well as students during the busy times.

Because of his expertise and knowledge gained from using ATVs and equipment, Ben progressed into servicing and supplying used ATVs and equipment for other users, quickly building up a loyal client base. As customer demand grew, agencies for new equipment and accessories like Logic were introduced. Because of the demand for reasonably-priced well-built equipment Richard Dent (who also has a steel fabrication business) started to build his Tuff brand of trailers and machines especially for Moorland ATV. In addition, he builds tailor-made machinery to suit individual customers' special needs.

The logical progression for this business was to take on an agency for new quad bikes and in the spring of this year Moorland ATV was appointed as the north-east main dealer for Polaris, covering an area from Middlesbrough south as far as York.

Ben told me he started his ATV business because he could see very little chance of getting into farming in a big enough way to make a reasonable living but he still wanted to work in the countryside.

He says he has had a lot of help and encouragement from his family and friends and a lot of very useful business advice from his father, Howard, and also received a grant from the Prince's Trust.

Rosedale is one of the places HM Government regard as tourist country rather than a commercial farming area and so it is very pleasing to see a young farmer who is bucking the trend and using his farming experience positively to generate business and employment in the area.

Ken Harrison

Updated: 12:21 Thursday, March 21, 2002