Out and About Poultry

Hi, it’s been a while, how are you? I am sorry I haven’t written for a while, I seem to go into a bit of a hole when the birds are not in. I find it difficult to write, well unless I am pissed up or pissed off. The two generally go hand in hand! So international women day in March completely passed me by, I have no idea how but it did and some of the amazing people who I have met during my time running the out and about social media accounts said some lovely things about me. Agriculture and the rural economy has to be one of the few places I have found where women empower women, where women celebrate each others’ achievements  and where women actively seek to build each other up.  Many of you will have read my blog post ‘integrity’ where I talked about my time in the corporate world and what the final straw was that finally gave me the balls to walk away. What drove me away was the inequality I faced as a woman in a predominantly  mans world. As much as the company dressed up the fact they wanted women…

I have been following the #Februdairy debate over the last few days with great interest and I have one question… When did freedom of speech end and tolerance to the views of others end? At what point did it become ok to tell people what they should eat, and shout down, threaten and abuse those who choose not to follow your views? I am not normally one to wade into the middle of a national debate  but you cannot miss the out and out war that is happening between farmers and those who believe that only plant-based foods should be eaten (vegans) on social media platforms and even national TV right now. Before I write further I will state my case and say now I am #teamdairy all the way. I have friends involved in the industry and have seen, and experienced first hand what goes on on dairy farms. I have never seen the cruelty to animals that extremists would have the public believe is happening. Quite frankly, I love cheese, cream and meat and there is no way I would ever give them up! I like to know where my food has come from and how the animals…

It’s about 11pm, unusually I’m not sat writing with a gin in hand, but I am sat in bed with my laptop (I know really sad). I’m catching a few minutes of writing time before the day ends and tomorrow arrives. I’m in the midst of the six weeks holidays and my role as a farmer has had to take a bit of  a backseat along with any time for myself; as I now have become a fully fledged holiday park style children’s entertainer! The spotlight has well and truly been on agriculture over the last few months and some pretty high profile twitter campaigns have flagged up many questions for the farming community. One that came up over and over was how do I get into farming or agriculture if I am not from a farming background? As a first time farmer myself I wanted to share my experiences of joining the agricultural world for those who are thinking about a career change themselves. As a former Banker, no I did not cause the banking crash of 2008, and a city dweller; deciding to spend time shoving your hands up dead turkeys backsides to make money is not the…