The People who use our Parts: Emily Padfield

12th June 2020

internationalwomensday

Throughout 2020 we are shining a light on just some of the inspiring and dedicated men and women working within the agricultural industry. In our second installment of ‘The People who use our Parts’ series, we caught up with Emily Padfield, a freelance writer and who, together with her partner Mark, run their mixed livestock farm in Warwickshire.

Oh, and you may recognise Emily and Mark as winners of the recent BBC2 show ‘Win the Wilderness: Alaska’ where they competed to live off-grid in the wild and walked away with an amazing house and land in Alaska.    

What does your job involve day to day?

Our family operates a sheep and beef farm in Warwickshire, pretty much in the middle of England. Each day, depending on the time of year, there are sheep to feed/check and work with as well as cattle to feed, bed up and so forth. There are also jobs like fending, building barns, maintaining buildings and such like. No two days are the same.

We also have a block of land that is entirely put down to environmental stewardship schemes where we grow crops like wild bird food, pollen and nectar mix and also legume crops to improve soil fertility.

Because we have a mixed livestock farm, our tractor gets used pretty much every day in one way or another. We are predominantly a one machine farm, with another tractor used only at peak times. We have recently taken delivery of our second Valtra N Series, this time upping the horsepower from an N124 to an N134. We have been pleased with the N Series overall and are also grateful to have a Valtra dealer, Lister Wilder, only a few miles away.

Why did you choose your current career and did you have any mentors who gave you encouragement along the way?

I fell in love with farming at an early age. My parents had nothing to do with farming and so I relied on local farmers to enable me to fuel my passion. Our neighbouring dairy farmer, Russell Dobson, was my first mentor, he trusted me to relief milk his cows on a Sunday and also helped me drive my first tractor. He even taught me how to reverse a tractor and trailer after I managed to blag my first harvest job working for the Queen at Windsor Great Park without having even driven a tractor with more than 100hp.

From then on, I have been overwhelmed with support at different stages in my career in farming. At the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester I was lucky enough to have a fantastic Dean of Agriculture, Professor John Alliston, sadly now deceased. He got me my first three jobs really, from working on a sheep and deer farm in New Zealand, to working for the National Farmers Union in Brussels as a parliamentary stagiaire (assistant). He then put me forward for a job at the UK’s top national farming publication, Farmers Weekly.

I have always had a passion for machinery and engineering, from when I crashed my first BMX cracking my skull to testing the newest combine harvester. The fast-moving pace of technology fascinates me and there’s always something new coming out. I started writing about machinery when I was with Farmers Weekly and it was the best job anyone like me could ever wish for.

Although I no longer work full time in agricultural journalism I still enjoy the freelance I do aside from my working life on farm. But it’s farming I love, give me a choice between writing and actually driving a tractor and it’ll always be the tractor that wins!

How do you think more women can be encouraged to pursue a similar career path?

I don’t think that the world of agriculture or agricultural machinery is for all women by any means, but for those interested I would encourage them to reach out to their local farms and/or businesses and try and get some experience to see if they do enjoy it and judge whether it’s for them. I would say farming isn’t only for those born into farming families, in fact sometimes those coming from outside agriculture can have more dedication as they really want it rather than it being thrust upon them at an early age.

What is the most important piece of advice you would give to a woman starting a similar career?

Don’t take things to heart and be tough.

Why do you think diversity is so important in the workplace?

I think diversity brings a whole set of different skills to the workplace. Each person, regardless of sex, has individual qualities and flaws, and so having a wide set of dynamics allows you to cover as many bases as possible.

Do you think there are equal opportunities for women in your field of work?

I have been lucky and not experienced many cases of sexism in my career. I have had comments, but that’s to be expected (that’s opening up a whole can of worms right there!). I have found that I have to spend a bit of time justifying my right to be taken seriously perhaps more so than males, but I have never been put off because of that. Agriculture is in some ways an old-fashioned industry. Historically, women have cooked and kept the house and workers going, which in no way is an easy feat. Given a choice between hoovering and driving a tractor I know which one I would choose!

What barriers have you faced as a woman in the workplace, and how have you overcome them?

I guess to a certain extent I have had to prove myself more as a woman and this had been compounded by the fact I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 13 years ago, which often means I don’t tell people until I know them really well. But I have never let my gender or disease pigeonhole me, which I think was evident when we took part in the BBC TV show Win the Wilderness: Alaska where we were fortunate to win an amazing house and block of land in Alaska.

What do you see is the biggest issue today facing women and the drive towards a gender equal society?

I think one of the biggest issues in the drive towards an equal society is mental health. It is very difficult to be able to ‘do everything’ and stay sane. For example; trying to have a family, keep a house, hold down a successful job/career and ‘cope with the Jones’s’. Also, there is still an inherent patriarchal society that means men do usually hold the top jobs still, which is slightly inevitable as many women have to have maternity time off etc. And there is a gender pay gap but it’ not something I have experienced myself.

Emily Padfield