The Young Keen Dairy Beans’ First Away Day Adventure
Yesterday marked the inaugural away day for the Young Keen Dairy Beans – a group of four enthusiastic young women with dreams of having their own cows one day. It all began when two of their bosses asked me to mentor them, and since then, we’ve been meeting monthly at the pub to talk about our goals, what’s going well, and what’s proving tricky.
For our first away day, I kept most of the plans a surprise. I simply told them to bring farm clothes, boots, and a swimsuit, and to meet me at my home farm at 10 a.m. for brunch. We started the day with croissants, bacon, eggs, tea, coffee, and juice while diving into a bit of goal setting. We reflected on what’s going well, what’s not, and what we might want to change. Since we’re six months out from the end of the year, we each set one big goal to achieve by then, and broke it down into three smaller steps. I’d made a simple worksheet to guide the chat, and it sparked some really thoughtful discussion.
After brunch, we headed out to a local farm run by Steve, who contract farms a high-yielding, organic herd. His setup is quite different from what the girls are used to, especially since some of them work on organic farms themselves. It was a great reminder that there’s no one-size-fits-all in dairy – success looks different depending on the system, the people, and the land. It gave everyone a new perspective and plenty to think about.
Next up was a trip to the beach at West Bexington. No one was quite brave enough to get in the water, but we enjoyed a good catch-up over chips and shared what we’d taken away from the morning.
Our final stop of the day was Ford Farms, now owned by Barbers. The farm has a fascinating history it was once part of a huge dairy empire, and today a lot of their cheese is exported to the U.S. The girls loved seeing how things had evolved over time and how scale can work in a completely different way.
If you’re a young person keen on dairy, there are some brilliant opportunities out there to get inspired and build your network. I’d recommend:
It was a day full of learning, laughter, and fresh ideas and hopefully the first of many more adventures with the Young Keen Dairy Beans! 🐄✨