Women leading the way in making Yorkshire farming a more modern industry

The Women In Farming Network is supported by farming charity the Yorkshire Agricultural Society to bring rural women together in the spirit of support and celebration, and while it has long been recognised that women have always had a vital role on family farms – the nature of it is changing.

Leading the panel were Becca Wilson and Lizzie McLaughlin who host the popular Boots & Heels podcast which has evolved into video form in its third season and takes insights into British agriculture to a wide audience.

Read More:

Becca, 27, the fifth generation of a farming family in North Yorkshire, left the farm to study at university. After early career ventures working for a rural surveyor and then a poultry equipment supplier – where she and Lizzie met and became firm friends – Becca now works on the family’s 600-acre mixed arable and sheep farm where the family is embracing data innovations to make their business more sustainable.

Co-host Lizzie grew up in Teesside and is not from a farming background and her job at the poultry equipment supplier after finishing university was meant as a stepping-stone into a different career but she has stayed in agriculture.

Becca said: “I often get asked, why did you go off and get a Degree and a Masters if you just want to be a farmer? Well, actually, there’s no such thing as just a farmer and regardless of your background, whether it’s academic, you’re at ag college or whether you have never set foot on a farm in your life, there’s potential for a career in agriculture. (By working on the podcast) we’re finding, every day, different variants in things, in computer science or engineering, agronomy… there’s a multitude of careers that you can do.”

Lizzie added: “The more I was in the industry, and the more I was talking to people behind our produce, there was so many amazing females and people and job.

"Just going to the shops to get some eggs or milk, the backstory behind that is incredible, so started to share stories which is a great passion of mine.”

A powerful account of entering the industry “through the trapdoor” came from Joanne Nicholson, who lives with her husband, Sean, and two young boys on the family dairy farm in Nidderdale after having initially grown up in Leeds with a corporate career.

They moved to the farm sooner than expected due to family illness and she spoke of the struggle when milk prices plummeted and how her corporate background related to a modern framework.

She established Little Seed Field, a glamping operation using what was an unproductive area of farmland. She said: “My role became about providing an alternative view. What I could see of the farm, as an outsider, was the beautiful scenery, an enthusiastic new generation who wanted to take the farm forward.”

Following the event Kate Dale, Co-ordinator of the Women in Farming Network said: “There is something so energising and positive about bringing rural women together in this way. Coming together for honest and open discussion generally leads to the positive change we need to see for our families and their businesses.

“The stories we have heard are a powerful testament to the contribution women make to this industry in the modern age, and to the exciting opportunities that there are to get involved in

British agriculture.”

The Women In Farming Network was created in 2013 following requests from women living and working on farms.