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G ra h am U m h e r t has liv e d o n 3 0 0 :a c re K itr id d in g 'F a rm , near K irk b y L o n sd ale , a ll his life a n d h e lp s his d a d S tew a r t w ith th e


fam ily 's h e rd o f 4 0 s t ic k le r c ow s a n d a f lo c k o f 5 0 0 lam b in g s h e e p , as w e ll as ta k in g o n c o n t ra c t w o rk . He is an e n th u s ia s tic


Wednesday,August 27^


m em b e r o f his lo c a lY o u n g F a rm e rs ' C lu b a n d th is y e a r has be v o te d in as vice -ch a ir. He is k e e n to s h o w his d a d th a t he, to o ^


can w a x ly rica l a b o u t fa rm in g , so th is m o n th w e w e lc om e his f c o n tr ib u tio n to o u r fa rm in g s lo t.


. • ,lrst She tells JOYCeI knopT


7ATIE Grieve admits she has never been a sheep person. aShe has, she says,


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...from May Day dancing in a silage pit to helping flood-hit Somerset farmers.,, BIT o f a change this issue; father


Lambert has let me.have a g o a t this writing malarkey. As readers o f dad's column will


already know, he was a member o f a Young Farmers' Club, and I have followed in his footsteps.


^ '


This month is.the start o f the YFC calendar, with


many clubs holding annual


general meetings a t which" ' members'are praised for their achievements over the past- year in county or national 'competitions. We also elect


the year's officials fo r the club ... and earlier this month I was elected vice-chair. Young Farmers is th e biggest national rural youth organisation. Its members are aged between 10 and 26 and clubs are run by


the members fo r the members, with out-of­ age advisory members


; \ /- / •' J


■ day! Being a part o f a YFC is brilliant. There really


- is something fo r everyone and it's n ot just


.: a c^ub f° r farmers; as long as you have an interest and are w illing to.muck in and


- sometimes g e t o u t o f your comfort zone, it can be very rewarding.


'


From now on through to spring there will be many competitions to take part in, from fence erecting and stock judging


to indoor sports," public speaking and quizzes. The competition th a t takes • up the most o f the club's time is the entertainments. I've played everything from an eccentric' king in a


1 pantomime to a village id io t in' a drama


and also a


newsreader/sports reporter/cheerleader in last year's sketch shows. As winter turns to spring young farmers start to g e t ready for field day. District level comes first and this leads on to county, northern area then national level, depending on how well you do at the various stages.. I've tried, and sometimes succeeded, in almost every competition, from reversing-a top-of-the- range new Holland tractor and


trailer round a course in the tractor handling on a glorious summer day to taking part and


coming second in ready steady cook. I've


judged prime beef cattle in the middle of a rain-soaked farmyard on a very different


providing support, help and guidance when . needed ... along with rose-tinted views o f how it was in their day - especially on field


fie ld day and performed a May Day dance in a s ila g e p iti I also g o t managed to come second in a national in the farm business


development category where entrants have to te n d e r fo r a rented farm, including


costings, cash flow predictions and future plans.


The social side o f young farmers is like no other. You make so many life-long friends and, like mother and father many, many years ago, could potentially meet your


future partner a t one o f the many'night


dos'. Throughout the year, along with the competitions and the meetings and the talks


we also d o a lo t o f fund-raising for the local ' and national charities. Young farmers from across Britain rallied


■ trailers.


round to find and supply forage fo r flood-hit Somerset farmers last year and many of them delivered the fe e d on convoys o f tractors and


'


For me, young farmers has helped me gain more confidence and given'me practical and social skills I would have never have learnt otherwise. If you're reading this and you are the right age and interested to find out more you will always find a welcome at your local YFC. Alternatively you can find more information on www.nfyfc.org.uk.


been a dairywoman all her life, although at 22 she has


plenty o f time to redress the balance. In fact, th a t is what she is


doing right now, redressing the balance by immersing h e rse lf-a s much as work allows -


in raising a small


'herd' o f sheep. "Sorry, I mean flock," she says, quickly correcting her error. Her foray into the sheep


world began in 2012 when she received an in-lamb


Herdwick as a 21 st birthday present from her uncle and • grandmother, who have a farm in Bentham. It rewarded her by giving birth in March last year. Since then she has added


to her flock, even investing part o f her student loan in a pedigree gimmer lamb early last year, and she now has eight Herdwicks and a Suf­


folk cross. Although Katie, from


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Gressingham, d id not grow up on a farm, she was ex­ posed to livestock from an early age. "M y granddad did have a farm atGreenbank b ut he caught brucellosis during the war, probably from drinking camel's milk while he was in Egypt, so he wasn't able to go back into farming," she says. "Instead, he decided to become a cat­


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Paxton's, the tractor dealers, in Bentham. He was based at Lancaster auction mart so I spent a lot o f time there driv­ ing around on a little Case tractor." Katie's father die d when


she was only seven, but her granddad continued to take her to the auction every week and her fascination with the cows, in particular, grew. - .. Ironically, when a farmer


near her home offered her the chance to help out with milking when she was 14, Katie turned him down. "I


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to ld him I was terrified of cows," she says. Despite her regular visits to the auction she only felt safe around the livestock when there was a barrier between her and the animals.


. "There's something amaz­ ing about a big bull," she • says by way o f explanation. "They scare me but at the same time-they are quite • • amazing." With reassurance from


the farmer that she wouldn't have to touch the cows, Katie agreed to try her hand ... and loved it, although it d id n 't take long to realise that she couldn't milk with­ out contact.


SHEEP'S STEWARD: Katie Grieve gets to grips with her flock "Moved doing it," she


says. "I still help out now and again, but I d id n 't want


■to milk cows for the rest o f my life so I decided to find something more profitable, with better hours." She found what she


wanted by taking a rural enterprise and land manage­ ment degree at Harper A d ­ ams University in Shropshire, and is now looking forward to her degree ceremony on S e p tem b e r^ . It was while she was being


interviewed for work place­ ments that Katie's inexperi­ ence with sheep became an issue. "I couldn't really take on work on sheep farms,"


• she said. Her 21 st Birthday offered her family the ideal opportunity to p ut th a t right. . "I just wanted to see what sheep were all about. I've never really, had a high \ regard for them because I've


- always been a dairywoman ' and sheep seemed a b it - suicidal to me. "I chose Herdwicks be­


cause they're very p o p u la r... around here ... and I th o u g h t


q . :% • JOYCE BISHOP how she ,s forging that new relationship ?°U chapter and verse cat1 Wednesday, August 27,2014


Pictures DONNA CLIFFORD/ROSS>AR^YAGeF c y


they looked cute, which I know is a very superficial o f me; I call them te d d y bear sheep."


Cute o r not, the sheep


are slowly inveigling th e ir way into her affection. " I can now appreciate why p e o p le become interested in having sheep and engrossed in / : showing them and I under­ stand more about the strug­


gles facing hill farmers; it a hard business," she says. Katie considers herself very fortunate n o t only to


have found a jo b so soon after finishing her degree, but to have found.one close to home, back at her old


stomping ground at North West Auctions in Lancaster. She now works there as a


trainee valuer, surveyor and land agent and is aiming fo r


chartered surveyor status. "I'm very comfortable


working here because I'm so


used to the place. I feel like I've come full circle." -


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