Reaching out and communicating can be a great way to open up opportunities for wannabe farmers as well as those who are established, says The Yorkshire Shepherdess, Amanda Owen.
The Yorkshire Dales sheep farmer, who recently released her fifth best-selling book, Celebrating The Seasons, and who is now into the fifth season of Channel 5s Our Yorkshire Farm, says these farm diversifications and career opportunities have all come through communication.
Speaking on FGs Over The Farm Gate Podcast, Mrs Owen, who had an urban upbringing in Huddersfield, has attracted hundreds of thousands of social media followers by sharing photos of her life farming 1,000 sheep in the Yorkshire Dales with her husband Clive and nine children.
I have discovered over the years that communication skills get you placesif you can reach out and ask [then things happen]. It is hard, but you do have to push yourself, she said.
Knowing she wanted to farm, as a teenager Mrs Owen hung out at her local auction mart.
I used to go and talk to people, and [through that] I got some work experience and got to go places and learn stuff, because I was genuinely interested and wanted to know, she added.
It takes a bit of bravery to do that, but nowadays you can perhaps ask those questions on social media..but you need to go deeper."
Although she knows other women have experienced discrimination, Mrs Owen said she was 'welcomed absolutely wholeheartedly' by the older generation of farmers who gave her contract shepherding jobs, because she was 'enthusiastic and wanted to do it'.
Later, her TV series and books were kick-started by a conversation with one of the many walkers who passed through the farm, and who turned out to be a TV researcher. This whole journey began with just making cups of tea for people, she said.
Now, one day she might find herself pulling sheep out of snow drifts, and the next at the Cheltenham Literary Festival sat next to Joan Collins and Ruby Wax.
I do get moments where Im like how did things escalate to this?, Mrs Owen said.
But the more you do it, the more you realise everyones in the same boat everyone is literally just doing their best and winging it, so who says you do not fit?
The farm, Ravenseat, is one of the most remote in the UK, but Mrs Owen says it has given her all her opportunities, and her writing and TV work is just a different type of farm diversification.
The idea is to have your fingers in lots of pies, a bit of this, a bit of that, and then its your safety, she added.
It means you are busy, but whether it is looking after tourists, writing books, or farming, if you put them all together you are future proofing.
But she also says she felt annoyed that before the pandemic people were encouraging farmers to diversify almost to the detriment of farming itself, only to realise how important the job of producing food actually was.
"Also, not everyone lives in a chocolate box farm house in gorgeous surroundings there are people who live in farms that dont lend themselves to [diversifications like farm shops and tourism]but they are farmers, and they are really good at it," she said.
Her latest book, Celebrating the Seasons, is a collection of farm photos and family recipes that the Owens rely on to feed their large brood.
It is kind of like survival of the fittest hereevery day is like cooking Christmas dinner, said Mrs Owen.
The recipes had to be incredibly forgivingif you put it in the oven and leave it for an hour, but have to leave it for two hours because you ended up calving, it will be okay, because that is the nature of life on a farm.
