Young Farmers and Careers

After recruiting and training your staff, you want to keep hold of them, but how? Jez Fredenburgh speaks to farm employers and employees about how to boost retention.

Eveey Hunter, 27, works for the family farm business, managing the admin and accounts as well as provides freelance consultancy work for other haulage and farm businesses. She is also on the NFU Student and Young Farmer Ambassador programme, and recently launched a farm safety initiative asking farmers to list five things they could do to make their farm safer.

Amy Gouldthorpe, 21, lives on her family’s mixed farm in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. She is studying an agriculture with animal science degree at Harper Adams University.

Young people are often regarded as the future of farming and with this in-mind many breed societies now offer a range of activities to encourage, support and cultivate young talent.

Charlotte Bevan, 26, grew up on a Herefordshire farm and works as a senior accounts administrator for CXCS, a firm of agricultural compliance advisers.

Hannah Rees, 24, is from Clarbeston Road, Pembrokeshire. She is currently studying at Harper Adams University and has completed a research project looking at mental health within agriculture.

A survey run by Farmers Guardian earlier this year revealed 50 per cent of farming employees said they had gained skills independently of their employer, reflecting a desire to upskill themselves. Jez Fredenburgh takes a look at the some of the key training opportunities available.

William Mellor, 24, works on his family’s dairy farm Bakewell, Derbyshire alongside his brother and parents.

John McCulloch, 21, is a stockman at G Barbour & Co, based in Crocketford, near Dumfries in South West Scotland. He is the chairman of Stewartry Young Farmers and chairman of the SAYFC West region agri and rural affairs committee.

Lucy May Griffiths, 20, is from a mixed farm in Radnorshire, Wales. She is in her second year at Harper Adams University studying agriculture with animal science.