Sian Lovatt - #FabulousYoungFarmers

Sian Lovatt is a 25-year-old equine blogger and Young Farmer. She is a keen rider, having owned and ridden horses ‘practically all her life’, and has become involved in the farming community more recently. However, due to her lifelong love of horses, she has always had a country lifestyle, so it comes naturally to her to don a pair of wellies and get stuck in at Young Farmers.

Sian is a member of Spilsby Young Farmers in Lincolnshire. Spilsby is a seemingly small but friendly club with their key events throughout the year being their Welly Disco and dinner dance.  She joined Young Farmers about a month ago after moving away for university, when she returned home she had lost touch with old friends and a colleague suggested Young Farmers. Sian decided it was ‘worth a try’ and has loved it ever since.

‘someone at work suggested joining Young Farmers to get to know some more people in the area I decided it was worth a try and have enjoyed it ever since!’

For Sian, Young Farmers is a great place to get to know the local people and businesses. Young Farmers is a great organisation, as so many people, myself and Sian included, make lifelong friends and form brilliant connections for their work and social lives.

Young Farmers is particularly important in rural areas where Young People sometimes have fewer options on what they can do and where they can go with friends.

‘Often you find in these small villages that there’s very little to do for young people with similar interests, so Young Farmers is great for bringing people together and allowing them to share knowledge, interests and much more - but whilst still having fun!’

Although Sian has only been a member for a short while so far, she has already put her name down to judge a Hound and Hunter competition which she says she is thoroughly looking forward to.

I am sure that Sian will have many more endeavours with the Young Farmers as she continues to build new friendships and try new things. You can keep up with her on her blog or by following her on Twitter (@SLEquineJourno).

Cesca Beswick - #FabulousYoungFarmers

Francesca (Cesca) Beswick is a member of two Young Farmers Clubs: Silsoe in Bedfordshire and Sandbach in Cheshire. 25-year-old Cesca is also an active member of Ladies & Livestock and the National Farmers Union.

Cesca comes from a long line of dairy farmers, so it was only natural for her to join up and become a member of the National Federation of Young Farmers. Her friends were what sparked her interest in young farmers, and she has been an active member ever since.

‘My friends asked me if I wanted to join, so I joined and started to get involved.’

Cesca has been a member of her local young farmers club for longer than she can remember and has had some great experiences. Her favourite thing about being a Young Farmer is the support she receives from her friends and fellow farmers.

She has accomplished a lot as a Young Farmer, one of these things has been being a Judge at the International Cheese Awards. However, her greatest achievement to date has been establishing her own flock of sheep. As her family's agricultural business lies mainly in dairy cows, she had never had much to do with sheep until they needed to start grazing some smaller paddocks. She keeps these sheep while still helping out on her family farm with milking and other tasks.

‘I'd say my biggest achievement in farming is starting a flock of sheep from nothing. We've always been dairy farmers so sheep wasn't ever really on my agenda until we needed to graze the fields over winter with sheep and some small paddocks which aren't easy for the cows to graze.’

Although extremely busy with the agricultural aspects of her life, Cesca also manages to run a lifestyle and farming blog where she writes about her day to day life. She has segments such as ‘Have I got news for ewe’ and posts about her sheep, chickens and cattle.

If you want to keep up with Cesca and her farming adventures, you can follow her blog: Cesca on the farm and she is also on Twitter @Cesca_Beswick.

Exciting New Series! - #FabulousYoungFarmers

I am planning to start a series on my blog called #FabulousYoungFarmers. In this I am going to host a series of interviews with present and possibly past members of the National Federation of Young Farmers, I hope to encourage others to hop on the bandwagon and join the young farmers.

I am aiming to educate others on what we do and why they should join.

If you would like to be a part of this, either by being interviewed or by sharing some photos for me to promote Young Farmers, please contact me either by twitter at (@woesofwellies) or by email (woesofwellies@gmail.com).

If you are a Young Farmer already please could you complete this survey/data collection about your experience with young farmers so far. http://goo.gl/forms/v4KFb89OTT

Look out for some exciting posts coming soon!

Farmers Weekly: The View from Here

I wrote this piece as a response to Farmers Weekly's 'the view from here' writing competition. I thought that it might interest some of you as I know that a lot of you are from the agricultural community. 

The view from here

It's easy for us to forget sometimes when we are caught up in our everyday life, how much farmers do for us. When we are on our coffee breaks, when we are picking up our groceries from the nearest supermarket, or when we are sitting down to dinner. Those of us a little bit further away from the farming community, with high profile city jobs or busy families often don’t stop and think about what we are doing all the time and how farmers affect our day to day lives. Everyone is guilty of forgetting the odd thing, a dentist appointment, a promise to call someone back or even just to pick up a loaf of bread from the supermarket, so why is it so different when we forget to thank the farmers for all they have done?

It is often said that farming isn’t just a job, that it is a lifestyle and this is absolutely true. Farmers work 24/7 every week of the year whether they are helping out an ewe who is struggling to give birth, rounding up a herd of cows for tuberculosis testing or harvesting a crop into the early hours of the morning and they should be commended for it. The fact is, without farmers we wouldn’t have the lives we live today, and with the price of milk dropping lower than bottled water and the cost of growing arable crops nearing the cost they are selling for, farmers jobs are harder than ever.

As a student who lives in the city but is an active member of the young farmers, I get to see it from both perspectives. The struggling farmers and the busy city workers, I have the view from both sides. Sadly, the kids in the city are becoming less and less educated on what is happening in the countryside with regards to farming and general country life. If I went up to the people in the corridors of my school, most of them wouldn’t have a clue about the struggles of the dairy farmers, or the struggles of the general upkeep of a farm and probably wouldn’t ever find out unless they happened to stumble across something I had shared on Facebook or Twitter. The sad fact is, even then they wouldn’t think it had anything to do with them. The view from here, into the future, is foggy. We don't know what the future will bring for farming and without the support of young people there won't be a future. That is why it is so important to educate people on agricultural and rural issues. Teenagers need to be educated about it before its too late for them to make a difference. They should have the opportunity to make smart choices regarding the future of farming, as it is, after all, their future. The next generation of farmers will be vital to the people. Look at what has been accomplished already. Although controversial to some, genetically modified crops are making it possible to feed people off of the land in places where it wouldn’t have previously been possible. For young people facing decisions about what career they want to pursue, the number considering a future in agriculture is alarmingly low and the number that is looking to enter it from an urban background is even lower. There needs to be more of a choice for them to pursue agriculture or rural land management, something to set them up for an agricultural career. At the moment the focus is on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), but what about agriculture? Where the numbers are falling lower and lower each year. Where is the push for farming?

In order for there to be a future for farming, we need to get on board. We need all the support we can get for those who support us the most. We have Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, World Book Day even National Almond Day, but where is the appreciation for farmers and those who support them? Farmers, farmers wives or husbands, researchers, writers, marketing they all deserve more appreciation. So the view from here may not look incredible now but let's make it incredible. Thank a farmer.

Meet my Goats!

Meet Will and Harry. They are my two year old pygmy goats. I got them in May 2014 and ever since they have brought nothing but fun and delight to the yard.

They are very cheeky goats and they are always playing with each other and running around. I like to take them for walks around the field and I even took them to my sisters baby shower!

We got the goats as we hoped that one day we would be able to keep them as companions for the horses, however with the sheep-tipping reputation of our 17hh+ Thoroughbred Joshua, we decided it might be best to keep them in their own pen inside the same field, but out of Joshua's way. We bought some sheep hurdles and a pig arc (who knew that there are ZERO products on the market for goats!) and set them up in the field. 

We bring them into a stable at night where they sleep happily in a fluffy straw bed.

They are fed a pygmy goat mix with some chopped up carrots and apples, but their favourite food is hands down grapes! Who would have guessed that goats love grapes so much? But only the green ones!

I would love to start showing my goats in the near future, and I know I am biased but I think they would be cutest in show!

If you would like to see more of Will and Harry or if you have any questions about them or what its like having goats please tweet me at @woesofwellies. 

A Morning Shooting

Earlier this year my Mum bought me and my Dad a clay pigeon shooting experience day. My Dad has shot before in the past and even had a driven Pheasant shoot at one point, but I had never done it. Knowing I was keen, she thought it would be a nice thing for us to do and a fun morning out.

We booked it for this weekend at the Hereford and Worcester Shooting Grounds and set off this morning to go! When we got there we sat down with the other six people (there were eight in total) and chatted a bit while we waited for the instructor. It was quickly revealed that the only people that had shot before in the group were my Dad and one other man...

Our instructor came and introduced himself, we then walked out to the traps where we had a thorough talk about safety and found out which was our dominant eye. We learnt how to hold the gun and then it was our turn to have a go. Everyone was excited to have a go, and soon it was my turn. To my surprise, I hit my first clay.

We moved around to different stations and tried the different bird simulations, my favourite was definitely the one that came from a trap near the station and came out in front of you. Although the one where two clays were fired at once was good fun too. I managed to get them both in one shot!

When we finished shooting we went into the lodge for some vegetable soup and a cup of tea. This was much appreciated after standing in the cold all morning!

Overall we had a great morning, we learnt a lot and had great fun. Our instructor was very patient and helpful... I would definitely recommend a day like this to anyone looking to try clay pigeon shooting, and the Hereford and Worcester Shooting Ground is a great place to try it if you are local.

If you would like to look into it, their website is here.

**All opinions are my own and not sponsored.