Celebrating farmworkers in photos

Agriculture would fall apart without the army of people who work on our farms – but they don’t always get the credit they deserve.

Whether it’s stockmen, shepherds, foremen, fitters, tractor drivers, sprayer operators, secretaries, students or seasonal overseas workers, it takes a special breed of person to do these demanding jobs.

Farmers Weekly wants to celebrate the contribution made by farmworkers everywhere. After all, alongside landowners, owner-occupiers and managers, it’s their hard work, knowledge and skill that produces our fantastic crops and livestock.

But we need your help. We want you to send us your photos of farmworkers. You might be one yourself, a friend or relative of one, or an employer.

Your photos can show these men and women at work or at play, on the farm or at home, on their own or with their colleagues or their family. Ideally, the pictures should capture the spirit of what it means to be a farmworker.

We’ll publish the ones we like best later this year in a special issue of the magazine which will have a guest editor, the 2009 Farmer Weekly Awards Farmer of the Year Nick Padwick, who’s keen to highlight the vital role of farm workers across the nation.

There’s a great prize on offer to the person who sends us the photo we like best. They’ll win a visit from an FW photographer who’ll take a portfolio of pictures for them.

How to get your photos to us:

Email them to fwfarmlife@rbi.co.uk or upload them into the gallery on our website at www.fwi.co.uk/farmworkers

Long service pays off for Forsyth farmworkers Three members of the team at Forsyth Farmwork have been presented with the Warwickshire Agricultural Society long service award, having notched up a combined service of 100 years between them. The trio (pictured left to right, holding the tankards) are Richard Cooper (37 years of service), Edward Bainbridge (32 years) and Bill Howe (31 years). “These loyal and highly motivated men share such a wealth of knowledge and experience so avidly with us, the younger members of the team,” says farm manager William Forsyth. “I feel this is a great combination of experience and youth, and is a huge credit to my father Antony Forsyth for his high level of management over the years.”