A life in the great outdoors

If you think of a typical farmer, you probably don’t picture somebody like Emma. That’s perhaps because her route to becoming a farmer wasn’t a typical one. We ask her about her journey so far and about the realities of a career in agriculture.

Emma grew up in the New Forest and had applied to study Dentistry at university. “Unfortunately, I missed out by a few UCAS points so took a year to re-sit my A Levels,” Emma explains. During that year, Emma had a bit of a lightbulb moment. “I had applied to do Dentistry because everyone told me I was bright and would do well. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do so I applied for it, but I began to realise that I was actually more interested in making things. Woodwork had been one of my favourite subjects at school. I discovered the world of prosthetics and orthotics, which are the branches of medicine that deal with things like splints and artificial body parts. I found a Degree at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, for which my existing A level results were appropriate. I was accepted so I was able to stop doing my re-sits.” So, what did Emma do for the rest of that year until it was time to head to Glasgow? “My parents had a small-holding with some cattle and sheep, so I spent my time helping them and working part time in a bank. I was always interested in the animals as a hobby; I don’t suppose there are many 16-year-olds who would want three sheep as a present for passing their GCSEs!”

Those three sheep became a small flock during that year, with Emma buying another sixteen Suffolks which she would show at local agricultural shows. Emma also signed up to work on a farm during the lambing season. March and April particularly are a busy time with sheep giving birth so farmers will often hire in extra help to oversee the new arrivals, usually around the clock. “I spent a brilliant but exhausting month in Wales, with the farmer’s wife and I birthing 1200 ewes overnight. What an experience!” Emma recalled. Autumn arrived and Emma finally headed off to University. For three years, however, she would take the overnight bus home most weekends to care for her growing flock. “It takes 11 hours by bus from Glasgow to Southampton; my friends thought I was mad!” Emma joked. “I would just get to spend a day with the sheep and try to sleep on the bus each way. Lambing season was particularly challenging, but I would try to spend as many term-time weekends with them as I could. I had about 30 sheep by then.” A testament to Emma’s academic ability, and in spite of all the travelling, Emma graduated with a First Class degree. She secured a great graduate job based in Oxford and really enjoyed working with her patients. “But after a few years, it felt like the life I wanted to be living was getting in the way of work; I still loved caring for patients, but I realised all the paperwork wasn’t what I wanted. I don’t think I was happy, personally, so I made a big decision. Aged only 27, I walked away from my secure NHS 9 to 5 career. I kept doing orthotics part-time to keep up some income but what I really wanted to do was go lambing.”

“Although l had a foot in the door of agriculture, I had nothing that would earn me a living,” Emma explained, “so I advertised myself as a freelance lamber on the National Sheep Association website. I spent the spring in Worcester, then Winchester, then Aberdeenshire. By the end of that season, I had lambed thousands of sheep – mostly at night - and lived out of my car!” At the end of that season, Emma had picked up a few part-time hours but nothing more substantial workwise. Naturally, her thoughts turned to buying yet more sheep but where to house them all was becoming an increasing challenge. “That Christmas, I got a really lucky break,” Emma said. “Someone I knew from the Young Farmers group in Oxford asked me if my flock would be available in the spring for lambing weekends. They had a farm and wanted to invite people in to see the lambs being born but needed a flock. I had 170 ewes due to lamb, so I accepted, in spite of my worries that they were all too pregnant to move by then!”. “I wasn’t sure if anything would come of it, but it just all seemed to happen. By Valentine’s Day, me, my dog and the flock had moved to Oxfordshire. The lambing weekends were a great success, with around 2,000 visitors a day at weekends and then school groups during the week to watch the new ones being born.” At the end of the season, the landowners agreed that Emma could leave her flock on site temporarily to graze the land. But it wasn’t long before the landowners asked Emma to take on the grazing licence tenancy of the land, too. “I wasn’t sure I would get it as I had no capital to invest,” she explained. “But they seemed to believe in my enthusiasm and determination and were willing to give me the chance. In September 2016, I found myself a tenant farmer!” Emma’s business, Emma’s Ewesful Acres, has grown from there. Her grass-fed flocks of Poll Dorset and Lleyn sheep are bred for their meat as “it costs more to shear sheep than you can get from selling the wool.” She has also extended into cattle, with her Sussex and Simmental beef cows helping to conserve the floodplain meadows where they graze. Emma now supplies lamb, hogget, mutton and beef across the Thames Valley and into Hampshire. “The fact that I can deliver was a real help during the pandemic, which actually increased my orders,” Emma added. She is also proud to be recognised for her work: in 2020, she won a Great Taste Award, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Great British Food awards. What advice would Emma have to anyone interested in a career in agriculture? “Get some work experience!” she exclaimed. “To be any sort of farmer, you have to love the great outdoors and being hands on and the best way to find out if that is really for you is to try it yourself. It’s not for the faint-hearted but it’s such a vital role, we do need more young people coming into this industry.” “Remember that you don’t have to go it alone from the beginning; getting a job on a farm to get experience and some savings would be a good way to start. And joining Young Farmers will be a great way of making good contacts. There are also lots of different directions you could take under the umbrella of farming,” Emma explained. “Whether you enjoy the machinery and technology side or looking at sustainable and eco- ideas; I’ve explored the education angle, looking at how children’s visits could share our knowledge.” “I know I will never get rich from my animals, but I certainly don’t regret my decision. Money alone doesn’t make me happy!”

www.emmasewesfulacres.com