Life on a farm has always been my dream

I love the great outdoors and getting my hands dirty, I love being among nature and I’m a lover of all creatures great and small. But there’s one twist: I’m a vegetarian farmer, and yes, the irony isn’t lost on me!

Growing up, I loved helping on my uncles sheep farms. Yeah, I had two uncles, each running a sheep farm – clearly there’s a favourite animal in the family! It’s where I got my first taste for farm life. Fast forward to today and I manage a farm that also hosts hilarious events (my 2 favourite things 😊).

From putting our groups through their paces, cooking up a treat on our Muck Spreader BBQ, feeding and caring for our sheep and pigs, to keeping the grounds in shape, I throw myself into everything farm-related…except for one thing: I stopped eating meat after an experience that made me question the line between loving animals and eating them.

Buying 2 mini-Hereford cows once, I had the pick from 4 calves. It was a tough choice as they were so cute, but I picked my 2, then stupidly I asked what would happen to the other 2 (big mistake). They will go in the freezer came the reply!!! My heart sank in that moment as I looked at the 2 baby calves that I didn’t choose. Their fate was sealed! What had I done?

From that point I couldn’t eat meat again!

Many people wonder how a vegetarian can work on a farm. For me, it’s simple: I believe animals should feel safe and that they have a good life whilst they are with us. While I don’t eat meat anymore, I understand that farming is a cycle—animals are raised with care and part of that cycle sometimes involves letting them go. Even if I won’t eat them, I want them to have the best life possible, plenty of love, plenty of food, big open spaces and lots of extra scratches behind the ears (that’s the pigs as I can’t get anywhere near the bloody sheep to give them a fuss)

Hence why I looooove taking pics of them / with them !

And then of course there are sometimes piglets!

There is always time for a picture with the pig!

Being a vegetarian farmer might seem contradictory, but it gives me a unique perspective. I can relate to the animals in a way that makes me an advocate for humane treatment. Plus, it lets me show our farm visitors a different way to appreciate life on a farm, even if it sometimes pulls at my heartstrings.

As I write this, I’ve just said goodbye to my piggies that I’ve raised since August. I told myself I couldn’t be there to say goodbye to them, yet I couldn’t help watching the CCTV from home as they were loaded onto the trailer and taken away. I don’t want to know what happens to them either, I imagine they will go for meat (especially as I’ve had them on pig finisher food for the last month) but if I don’t know then a part of me can imagine them still living their best life and possibly even becoming mum’s.

Next year our new piglets will arrive, I’ll tell myself I’m not going to get attached again, and I’ll completely fail withing days of them arriving (I’m only human after all) and the cycle continues.

The next pigs will be provided to us by a young local pig farmer called Harri who owns and runs Alkington Pedigree Pigs. He raises pedigree Berkshires and Large White pigs and shows them at shows up and down the country and also does a bit of judging in the pig section on the side too. We love to support a budding young farmer plus he’s a bit of an expert in what he does, and we know we will have some good quality, healthy piglets for herding next year. That’s important to us.

So, yes, I’m a vegetarian farmer, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, life on the farm is all about balance—and that includes finding peace within its contradictions.

Donna