Young Farmer Focus

Are you overlooking the passive improvement you could gain in your herds’ fertility? In combination with good management practices, a consistent focus on breeding for better fertility plays a critical role in improving your bottom line.

Flo Giles, 27, is a pig farmer’s daughter from Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, and works for livestock trading company Meadow Quality. She recently represented Warwickshire Young Farmers Club (YFC) at this year’s NFU conference.

Harrison Anton, 23, is a farm and environment assistant with CLM, a firm of farm business consultants and land agents working across southern England.

Michelle Stephenson, 27, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is a full-time assistant land agent for Bell Ingram in Aberdeen and is a Next Generation representative for her local NFU branch.

Ryan Coates, 27, runs Newtoncroft Farms, alongside his father Brian and uncle Martin in Newton Harcourt, Leicestershire. He is Leicestershire Young Farmers’ Club county chairman, vice-chairman of Midlands and East Anglia Hereford Breeders’ Association and a member of UK Hereford Youth.

Olivia, 22, from Whitchurch, Shropshire, is currently studying an FdSc in Dairy Herd Management at Reaseheath College and was recently crowned runner up in the prestigious Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) 2020 ‘Dairy Student of the Year’ competition.

Cerys Fairclough, 16, lives on a family sheep farm near Newbridge on Wye, Wales, where she is successfully developing her own flock of Bluefaced Leicester ewes. She is also one of 12 young people to be selected for Farming Connect Agri-Academy.

Charlotte Garbutt, 24, from East Yorkshire, is an area manager for agrochemical company, Sygenta and is the current county vice chairwoman of Lincolnshire Young Farmers Club (YFC). She has also set up a pedigree Limousin herd on her smallholding in Billinghay, Lincolnshire.