Rebekah Housden: There’s no shame in being a part-time farmer
© Supplied by Rebekah Housden Just a part-time farmer. That’s me, apparently. Although it’s not said as an insult, I do have to wonder if there is such a thing.
Does it just mean someone who chooses to work in agriculture as opposed to being born into it? Does that mean they can’t be doing it “properly”?
As the longest day passes, the lambs are booming, haylage is rowed up waiting for the baler and finally it is dry and warm enough to start shearing.
See also: Rebekah Housden – is highlighting farming issues off-putting?
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I shear our sheep in the cooler evenings, working on one large farm through the day and squeezing in clerical work in between.
This must make it part-time, because it’s done out of hours and almost as a hobby. Between the bruises and the sweat and the blue words, I find it enjoyable, too – so perhaps that’s what makes it such?
With a birthday sailing by, I think of a smaller version of me standing on the gate to watch our local farmer move her Hexham blackies along the road.
I just wanted to be like that – a woman farmer. Experience has helped me ditch the sheep with horns, but otherwise how many people can really say they are where they wanted to be?
Rage-baiting comments about being part-time (and worse) don’t seem to work that well on farmers.
Several online media outlets use headlines that are aimed to provoke outraged comments and boost the popularity of articles, but farmers seem to be immune to this.
Maybe it’s the fact we are prepared for irritating events each day – creative ways for sheep to die, escaped stock, new illnesses, government decisions.
A lot of people will be hoping the change of prime minister might bring about some positive changes to farming policies but, as caretakers of land and livestock, the cows still need to be milked, the silage cut and the crops planted.
For there is no such thing as a part-time farmer.
