For a conservationist, I would say I have a surprising and often unexpected amount of farm experience-don’t get me wrong I’m definitely no where near able to equip and run a farm-but I’d say this is definitely an unusual trait for someone who is aspiring to work in conservation, particularly in the marine world!
A lot of this experience comes initially from a needs-must route- I took up my first farm volunteer role to gain enhanced animal knowledge to help with my university application due to only having academic background; another chunk from my undergraduate courses in taught modules and more volunteering in spare time. Finally, and probably most bizarrely, a large part of my farm knowledge comes from the work industry- after I finished my undergraduates, I got a job at White post farm as both a yard worker and school group guide, both of which turned out to be two of my favourite work positions to date!
Anyway, farm work is honestly really interesting, fun and rewarding. I say this again, as a conservationist and also a vegan, so I’m literally the strangest person to probably say this but I have loved every minute of working in a farmland environment.
What farm experience have I had?
Role number 1:All round farm-hand
My first farm experience was at our local inner-city farm –Stonebridge. I was around 17 and still at this time quite shy and anxious in new experiences, but I was always great at talking through it and pretending to be confident until it happened. I volunteered here just one day a week, and there was no typical day.
The farm, being inner city was small but well run. We had pigs, goats, ponies, chickens, ducks, a little garden, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a shop. We also worked closely with older people within the community who had ability impairments or conditions such as epilepsy so there was a lot of transferrable, life-applicable skills gained from his position. A typical day would involve letting all the big animals like the pigs, goats and ponies out to their relevant fields which was always hilarious as we had one goat Lucy who would blow raspberries on your bottom and butt you towards her field instead of you walking her!
Then the big clean down of all the animals occurred, a break for coffee or tea, feed and health check all the small animals, run educational talks for visiting school children- you name it we did it.
I stopped volunteering here when I went away for a few months to Australia to see family, after which I started my course at university and started a new type of farm experience.
Role number 2: University course-working farm
My university farm was very different to Stonebridge as it was a working farm and also purposed to educate agricultural students. This meant a lot of the animals did go into the food and dairy chains, but the care and love the farmers had for each individual was never questioned and always plainly obvious.
The main memory and volunteer experience I took from this was lambing. This is when female sheep, or ewes, give birth to their young. The whole experience is so well organised and run it was great to be a part of. I learnt a lot of valuable skills such as tube feeding lambs who couldn’t feed or who had been abandoned by their mums (some ewes just aren’t cut out for mum life!), giving injections to sheep, how to help birth a breech lamb and so so many more. Honestly, if you ever get the chance to help lamb, go for it, to this day it is one of my best and most loved memories and I remember shedding a few tears seeing my first birth. I also had to get very involved in one and it was scary and hilarious all at the same- a story for another time perhaps!
There was other family led farms I then volunteered at after helping at the university farm as I just had to get my fix of lambing, and each one was different and brought new challenges and learning experiences.
Role number 3: Paid farm yardie and guide
The final of my farm experience wasn’t so much voluntary as a paid job role, but I think its important to include it because again it was one of my favourite times (which is not something many people can say about the job roles they work in) and again so very different to the others. As previously mentioned, this was at White Post Farm, and involved again, cleaning out the animals every day, but also running daily anima handling sessions for the public, or perhaps even doing face painting or being in the Christmas play (all very varied).
My favourite part of this farm role was acting as a school guide, which involved taking school group all around the farm on personal tour, teaching them about the milk cycle, each animal and doing handling and feeding sessions with them. I
f you had asked me at the start of my learning experience if teaching children was something I had wanted to do I don’t think I would ever have said yes, but I LOVED it, realised it was a passion of mine and have since decided I would like to get into the education sector of conservation someday, so again a really useful experience in helping me to realise what I like and don’t like, and giving me skills.
What messages should potential volunteers take away from this?
The point to all of this is just keep trying different experiences.
You may not know what you like and don’t like when you begin, and that is fine! Or you may know you absolutely, definitely, don’t want to be being dragged around by a ewe and helping to birth a baby lamb in the middle of the night, or work with kids at all, and that’s fine too!
The important thing to remember everyone has different experiences and different things they take with them, so if you find it isn’t for you then that’s fine! There is loads more volunteer opportunities in other sectors out there.
Hopefully this blog post provides you with some idea of what farm work can be like in different parts of the industry and will therefore help you to decide which, if any you may try first. As always, any questions, leave them in the comments or message me directly!
All the best!
xo
Chan Tells... 