Charlotte Ashley and her husband, Roy, have always had a dream: Jersey cows. Having been beef and sheep farmers in Cumbria for many years, their dream has finally come to fruition, having recently finished building their shed which now houses their newly-welcomed Jersey cow herd. But what was the motivation behind the decision? Dairy can be a volatile sector, so what is their route to market and what is their business plan? In the first of a two-part series, Farmers Guardian's online editor Emily Ashworth finds out more.
Charlotte Ashley and her husband, Roy, have always had a dream: Jersey cows. Having been beef and sheep farmers in Cumbria for many years, their dream has finally come to fruition, having recently finished building their shed which now houses their newly-welcomed Jersey cow herd. But what was the motivation behind the decision? Dairy can be a volatile sector, so what is their route to market and what is their business plan? In the first of a two-part series, Farmers Guardian's online editor Emily Ashworth finds out more.
you can trust me. Moving into dairy from beef is not the normal narrative. But this is exactly what Cumbrian farmer Charlotte Ashley is doing. In this week's podcast with me, FGS online editor Emily Ashworth. Me and Charlotte speak about saying goodbye to the cattle built in the new shed and welcoming Charlotte's new favorite thing Jersey cows. This is a two part podcast. Charlotte's only just brought the cows on farm, but we'll catch up with her again in a few months. Time to see how it's all going. So we finally got a date in Charlotte, which is great. and we're here to obviously talk about your recent transition from beef to dairy. Yeah. I mean, if anyone doesn't follow Charlotte, on social media, you should. And, you know, for those who already do, they will already have been following, obviously, the whole journey so far. let's just talk about you first and your background. Okay. because we spoke, God knows how many years ago now. quite a good few number of years. and we were actually talking about your kind of artwork because you also yesterday. So shall we just. Let's go right back to the beginning. You're not some farm. And so how did you get into it? So I I'm definitely not from farming. I'm from Preston. literally farmers guardian country and I. I'm just, I was just an unassuming, normal person. I was never particularly clever at school. I was never academic. I never really had, like, never looked back. You wouldn't believe the the difference in the people that you're confronted with, because I'm quite confident and, you know, and I've definitely found my calling in farming. And I think that's 100% being the reason that it's brought it out of me. I just blended in and coasted through life until I was about maybe 23, something like that. I never I got kicked out of college. I can tell you, I have been fired from every single office based job I have ever had, and there have been many, I can tell you. I wrote Wills and Powers of attorney once. on Preston docs, and, clearly got fired from that. I was no good. I just I can't sit still. I really I can't, I can't sit still, I can't concentrate. If you put me in any kind of, classroom environment or even a boardroom environment, and asked me to look at a whiteboard. It's just like, oh, look, that's a squirrel. You know, I mean, it's kind of easy is an issue in some, in some respects in life. And then I just stumbled on farming and I absolutely love it. to the point that it literally is. It's the only thing I've. I've been good at it, like, work wise, it really is. And it just gave me such confidence. and I'm just I'm so pleased I found it so I have I got into farming. I ended up, getting a boyfriend who is a farmer, which I hate telling people that story. And I wish I had a different one. I wish I'd like crafted up by my fingernails. And, you know, I've ran into the field here, and, And I bought three sheep. no, I didn't, I was a carer, and I met my now husband, who I've been with for, I think 17, 18 years, something like that. And yeah, I ended up just going and spending time on his family farm. I lived in Preston. He lived in Cumbria, so it was 92 miles away, I think. Something like that. no. Possibly a little bit less. And I just. I just fell in love with farming. They had a, garage, and it was a case of I didn't work. I work different hours. I work early mornings and late nights. So during the day I was off. And that thing, you know, I need someone, a dogsbody to run around after us, and they send me. And it was like, Charlotte, go, mother, that car from, Charlotte go. And you know, feed the animal or do this or do that. So and that's literally how it started. and I learned a very old school method, should we say, I've just been farming, you know, very local, very, you know, like, you know, haha, kind of thing. And then, yeah, we, we finally, we moved here in 2016 and we got our own place and with always with a view of farming. Jersey milking us so that as well. We'll come back to that in a minute. But I don't think I knew that that was always in the plan. So that's a surprise. But that's why I'm like, this is why Charlotte just wanted to fly and I'm talking. I'm like, what's up? Like was. This a farm? It's a farm, yes. This is real life. I just want to touch on what you said about not being academic and all that, because, you know, we do hear this a lot. Don't weigh in farming. However, I think you can flip that, because actually, to do what you're doing, you know, in a sense, it is very academic because you need to be able to work out figures. You need to be able to interpret data. You need to, do all these things that, you know, maybe if you had been introduced to agriculture in school, you could connect the two and that, you know, it still doesn't happen. So I think that's one of the things that has been striking the obvious to me as an adult. I'm 35 years old, you know, I've got two children, I'm married and we're farming, and it's all very it looks from the outside very perfect. And this is, you know, a and it's really annoying to think that back then I could have avoided, you know, an absolute lifetime of heartache have been useless at everything. And I mean that. And it's not just, you know, something it's not no sob story or anything, but I well, I was, I was bullied, somebody was, I didn't know how to drop down my parents. I absolutely despaired of me, you know, I just didn't have anything going for me. I never had any passion of any sort to be able to follow. Like, I just, you know, it's, you know, I just coasted, basically. But I wasn't traditionally academic, as in school wise academic. but I just I just didn't have to get up and go to just I, you know, I think you do need to try lots of different things in life, but imagine how many children, not even children, young adults are being forced into jobs in offices that they hate, and they feel useless when all they need to do is have that chance. Meeting with agriculture to know that that's made for them. Imagine how many kids are out there, like young people that are struggling and mundane jobs that they absolutely hate because they've missed the call in in farming. And don't get me wrong, I remember the college prospectus coming out when I was in school and my school college was on there. That was all it was for us. I should have gone there, I should have gone there. But it just and, you know, it was even sadder. I did my work experience a day. I said to myself, and how about that? I did my work experience with school in the my school college marketing department, and I was putting together college prospectuses to go out to shows and God knows what, and job fairs and things like that. And I still never connected the dots. So even if agriculture shoved in front of my face, I never saw it as a career for me. And I just think, I don't know, I just think I know I spend a lot of time online making videos and things like that, but if I could just inspire 1 or 2 people just to even think that there's a possibility that they're like, oh, sorry I'm late, you've known, oh, no, I can't imagine it, I can't remember, I was saying. We might just keep this interview for Charlotte's camera. I just literally just got very excited. I do it again as well. Done. You put your perched on an owl cob. I did see I did see your camera screen start to rise and I didn't know if it was just me feeling a bit funny. I love it, I was going to make you stay there. Emily. There. My. Okay. Where did you run a well then as well I can't remember. I was talking about no, but you talk about obviously, even if you probably had a, you know, it was right there often to be it always has been. Well, no, honestly, it was, it was shoved. It was shoved in front of my face. And I had every opportunity to take that path. I think looking back, and I never did and I wouldn't mind my mum and dad, they like we had pauses and I say that and not in the posh. We had horses, we had a couple of nets and I think I should have seen maybe, but I unless you get that spark of interest and that, that inkling that it might be for you, you're not going to follow that, that path at all, are you? So I just yeah, I hope with the social media and stuff, it does spark a little, you know, set the seed in a few people and they think, oh, that might be for me, you know, I mean, I just find it so strange that it's now 2024 and we still have this represented an issue. I know, I know, I know what on earth is going on. And then I went to an event actually the other week, and it was held at an auction mart, and it was a first of its kind, and it was highlighting careers in dairy. And it was, you know, speaking to the organizers and their communication with schools. some of the schools had actually said, well, we're not gonna have any kids that go into agriculture. And there's your first barrier. How do you know how I don't know how we get across that. But yeah, you've obviously found where you want to be. yeah, but by fluke. But yeah. Absolutely. No. You're right. Yeah, yeah. meeting like, if I hadn't, it sounds ridiculous. If I hadn't have been at a party in Manchester and Roy's brother was there, was there I would have never even met. Yeah. So that it shouldn't that shouldn't be the case. We should be. It should be given as an option to more people. But then again, if they're not interested, I mean, I see there's a lot isn't there at the minute about like women in farming, you know, big women in farming and stuff. A lot of the women I know from Preston, they won't thank you for farming. They would not enjoy it. They would not want to be getting dirty. They wouldn't want. And I don't mean that in a stereotypical way. I it's not like they'll go to salons and get the hair done and things, but they just wouldn't want that life. They wouldn't. But it's getting it out to the people that might want that life. Yeah. And that's not, that's no, no I mean everybody, absolutely everybody. It could be anyone. And I just think of all the lots that are in, you know, that have become electricians or anything, plumbers, anything like that was to be fair and be way better paid. Wouldn't it's okay. They probably made the right decision what so miserable. But at least they've got money. Then miserable I do you obviously touched on social media just before, but I want to come back to that after, I can just talk about, so you obviously said you moved to this farm in 2016. What have you been doing on the farm? up until this point. Now, how we've been doing it. What livestock have you been running? Yeah. So we really already, had a a small, beef operation. they run that along side. It was more of a, a large hobby farm, should we say, and that was run alongside the normal day side business. And they had a garage, and then we decided we were going to go for it like that was that was it. We work on it. We were going to go into farming, and we were in a very fortunate position that we were able to do so, which I understand, and I feel the need to say this. I understand that not everybody is in that position. I I'm truly grateful for that. You know, that I've been able to do that. So we moved in 2016 and results raised do nothing for you farmers you are doing. we all we did is we upped numbers. So we went and we bought, Blue Cross cows from local dairy farms and we read them from calves. And then we ended up in the end, I think we built the majority of them, to be fair. And that's how we upped our numbers. So we yeah, we just we just modeled on which is modeled on, we weren't shot of machinery or anything like that. We had old bobcats and God knows what. So it wasn't like it was a hard, hard thing. But we knew going forward, building that everything had to be designed for a Jersey, cows and dairy. So we were designing and building buildings and then ramming them with beef cows. And obviously they're very disruptive and they are. So we were trying to, you know, fit, let me cows into cubicles and yeah, it was it was a very interesting process, but obviously a means to an end. We had to be farming something in the meantime. So that's what we've been doing just because I like I said, I didn't know that actually plan it always been to to convert to dairy and that, you know, we're down to the fact that you wanted dairies. Is that something that you would like? How did you and I discuss that? Like, how did that become the dream? So, the man is he's actually been here today. So this farm used to belong to a man called Tom Savage, and he, It was a brilliant, dairy farmer. He. They got a lot of jerseys after foot, mouth. And he ended up raiding some of the top bulls, like Jersey Bulls in the country. At one point, he held a record for the highest price and things like that. And we used to have a field next door and we'd be spraying thistles or rolling or doing whatever, and me as a girlfriend would just be riding on like you do, and I'd be petting these Jersey cows over the fence. And I absolutely love them there with the cutest, most adorable things in the world. Absolutely adore them. And there's a I did a video recently, and I took some pictures of my Instagram from way back when, and they were just pictures of me taking pictures of his cows, which was looking back was really weird. Like he could he could have been like, why are you taking pictures of my cows? But I was doing anyway, and they were just adorable. And that's what kind of sow the seed in me to want to do that. and then the kind of the dream of having the farm that was next door. And you know how it all came together, I will never know. And a lot of it was just good luck at the time that he was in a position to sell. but we had always wanted to put jerseys back on the farm, always. and people are like, oh, they come like reps and things and they're like, oh, is this some kind of, you know, technical reason why you want jerseys? And I'm like, no, just love this. Look, I love him, I love him, I know there is now obviously now we're grown up a little bit. And you get that romanticized view of farming out of your head. There is a real reason that we do want them. They, the economics, up them, stack up completely. We've got a higher milk price. They're a better quality milk. Let's go into Graham's Dairies, which is a small family dairy, which is something that agrees with us morally. so apart from the fact that they're just really cute and I love them like they do business wise, they do stuck up for us, which is brilliant. And we don't. It's not the biggest farm. Oh, so we we needed, like a smaller cow. That was an efficient converter. And I'm just not. And, hey, I'm just not a fan of a big Holstein cow. I'm not. And there's me. And, boy, we needed something smaller as well, because we don't want stuff. Which is why I've gone down the robotics route. so, yeah, it just it was all the stars collided, you know? I mean, and everything kind of came together, which is a by by a miracle, I mean that it really has been a miracle. I mean, if we'd had done any of this a year later, we wouldn't have been able to afford it, because obviously all prices went sky high and stuff. So, yeah, it's just it's just half of it's good business planning by boy. And then the other half is just absolute. Look how it works. I guess that's all part of it. But you know what you just mentioned? You've got a kind of route to market there with grains. Yeah. You know what I say when you talk to this about people. Because obviously if you look back over the years as well in terms of dairy, the price up and down the general perception of dairy, I guess some people would kind of go, what the heck are you doing? A lot of people have gone, what the heck are you doing? A lot of people, and I don't think normally people who don't realize that we're going for a slightly more niche product. We're not just going to make quantity, we're going to make quality, which I think will make the difference. we were not up against it. I suppose we've not got a massive rent that helps, and that's pretty honest. if you were on a rented spot, you'd also be, you know, combat and things like that. but yeah, it's it's not just that whimsical view, even though deep down it is it that's how it started. but yeah, it does stack up for us. But yeah, people do think we're crackers. They really do. And a lot of the comments on social media are like, why are you doing this? Everyone else is jumping ship. Why are you getting in? Well, if everyone else is jumping ship, it means there's a shortage of milk. So we're going to be all right, aren't we? Do you want to talk me through then? That whole this has obviously been years in the making taught me through the actual planning of it then. And, you know, the, the building of, of of the shed because it's been an epic project and once of before those who have been following, following you on social media and following this journey, you know, you can see how much is going into this. But passion aside, you know, how do you tackle planning? How do you logistically make it the way I really wish I would appear more on social media and it just will not because he's such a clever person and he is a business man. ABC he likes building businesses. That's it. He's brilliant. Honestly, his mind is something else. It really is. It's it's it's talk shop. But like, I think he's got pictures on laptops, like old laptops that from 2010 of shed designs with jerseys and of like the queen shed with full red robots. And and this is how long this has been going on. So it just is. It's literally been planned for years and years. And like literally above me, it is like shed designs from all those years ago. And yeah, it's just I think shed design wise, we put all this planning permission in and he's, he's done an absolutely amazing job on all of the farm. And we did I think it was there's no buildings that that built the actual big shed for us. and they did they did help out with the like the planning process because I suppose it's quite daunting for a lot of people to do things like that. And you often think it's going to cost an awful lot of money as well. And, you know, it does like the, the planning permission fee for the shed was 6,000 pounds, but that's something we didn't take into account. And that's just on council. so yeah, these things, they're all little things that I hope that by sharing them and videos, even though he's silent in the background, hopes that by sharing these things, it somehow gives people a heads up to what they're expecting if they're going to go into it. but then you can't lie that it's been in the this has been in the plan in so long that everything's changed. Everything's completely changed. Machinery went up, the price of steel has gone sky high. So it's not really very comparable to today's like economic kind of climate. Like if somebody were to text me now and say, can I have all your costings for what you built that I can give them? And that's an honest view of it. But there's not really a lot of point in me giving them because everything's changed so much. So yeah, it just it's it's been a long, long time and I think it's been planned for that long that we built things in like 2016 that have already come into fruition now. And it's been a long time waiting for them as well, which is just it's just it's like it's just foresight, isn't it? And it's just hard work to know what's going to work best. What do what what to say. Is it in terms of how many cows. So we've got cubicles for 150 cows and there's 116 animals in there okay. And we've done that I know a lot. We we had a fella come round at just how do some stuff. And he was like, why are you passageway so wide? I was like, because we're future proofing. Why have you got so many lights? Because of future proofing. Like times have changed, so we've got a lot more cubicles than what we will ever need. And that's not only to accommodate what we need to have extra, that's to accommodate what we might need to have extra in the future. Because, you know, you hear people, your companies are paying farmers to do stock sheds so that they look good. Well, we're already in the stock shed, so hopefully it'll set us in good stead for the future. And just tell us then what the system is going to be in terms of milking and, robots etcetera. How how is it going to work. so there's going to be two Lily astronaut A5 robots. there's going to be three banks of, 150 qubit. What? Not all of it. There's going to be 150 cubicles, but three banks of cubicles. it's gonna have a great way. So the cows can go out as and when they farm. Say, that isn't in yet. we're just going to get used to the system before we try and chase cows around outside. I'd rather chase them around in a shed for now rather than round the field, because that could be quite interesting. I think things change all the time. We were hell bent on a great system like we were. That is what we wanted. We weren't deviating. And then we speak to other people, robots and like, oh, you'll find that, you know, there's been a bit of bad weather. You'll keep your cows inside and your milk will go up and everything's more stable. It's more controllable all year, you know, all the changes have been taken out and we're like, nope, nope, nope. We're going to have graze cows milk. That's what we want. That's what the public want to see. That's what I like. Cows at grass. Anyway. I think after speaking to a lot more people, and a lot more professionals about it, that we will just have maybe the high yielding cows inside, because it's unfair to ask them when they're producing so much milk, to have a varied diet like that, it's best to keep a consistent, diet in them. And then like the low yield and ones will be able to go outside, which is quite good. But so we'll still get our way, but maybe slightly tweaked, but like, never say never to changing your mind really either. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. and in terms like Covid and that side of things, are you gonna run them with a bull? Are you gonna. I wasn't gonna work on the I was sacked semen. two, probably about 30% jersey. And then the rest will be from, which we've already started doing, very, very early days of choosing which bulls and things. There was some brochures lying around of bulls and things like that. All of that is brand new to us. It really is. Yeah. so, yeah, we're gonna. Yeah, we're gonna really be fun. Hopefully. Like, we on a jersey. Bull calves are not worth a lot. but we're gonna have to. We're just gonna have to bear them on with the beef. Just, you know, keep them going. Which is. It'll be interesting because we've been used to producing a car for the big heavy bomb. Massive, big muscles. That is exactly what we want it to do. but I think it's going to get to the point where we're going to just have to get used to. Yes, you've got your good product with your milk. but I don't think we're going to get necessary you products with the, with the, with the bull split question. Obviously. this has been in the pipeline for a long time, us and it's finally happening. So there's going to be some excitement. But first, you know, you just mentioned there's quite a lot of new things that you're going to have to be implementing. you know, that like you say about AI, there's got a lot of data as well to process from the robots, which is, very easy to, like, delve into it. But what do you foresee as like, any obstacles or kind of issues in terms of switching to dairy? the money getting into it, is it what for me personally or for anybody? For you? How do you see so this switch that that you've made what while you're what are your future obstacles do you think in terms of now. I think at present bear in mind we've been doing this a week. Interpreting data has become the big one, which is crazy. So you don't like in the past you. We threw a bull in and he did his job. That was it. Okay. And now it's a case of we're looking at a computer screen to see whether something's pulling 100% a different thing altogether. So yes, I find this quite often with like farming sectors, we all have things in common, but they are polar opposites. They really are. It is. Yes, we've been used to cows and yes, I've been used to cow behavior and how to carve a cow and the physicality of it. But I think it is a whole world away from what I've been used to, like a massive world away, like the amount of data I'm being given is unreal. And I think it's going to be learning how to interpret that data that is going to be the massive learning curve. So, for instance, the other day it flagged up this cow was sick and it says, and I wish to change it to not like sick chance because it sounds automatically like you think the animal's going to drop dead. So it's a sick chance, you know, 80%. And I'm thinking, oh, God, there's something wrong with a, you know, rumination was this and this. And the other one, I'm thinking, oh, God, there's something wrong with this cow. So I'm running around the shed looking for. Couldn't find her. I thought, where's cow? She wasn't. She was in the dry cows and she was Covid. And she coughed that night. So it detected that there was something wrong with it. She wasn't moving around as much and she wasn't ruminating the same. And then she calved. So it's not jumping in and thinking that things are going to be automatically dropping dead. And yet you just have to learn how to interpret that data. It's just going to be really different, I think. Yeah, yeah, I love that though, in terms of and it actually goes back to what I was saying right at the beginning. You know, the fact that you get to you're gonna have to manage all this and to use it to improve efficiency. I think that's like as daunting as it might be. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it is amazing. And already, like, things like, rope a rough bale, let we have a load of bales of light. I'm a psychologist, put the silage up with it and we put it in the milk went down and you're like, yeah. So it's just all these things like, now our cows, it didn't necessarily matter if what you gave them to eat. Literally, they'd eat tobacco if you gave it them, they didn't care. Whereas it's just a very it's like it's like having a racehorse and a donkey, you know? I mean, it's just completely a different thing altogether. And, and every variable that you change has an effect on the animal. and things like milk fever and stuff. Yes. I have seen animals with milk fever, but while it was a rare occurrence and it was a case of, oh, there's something wrong with this cow, get the vet out, whereas now I'm going to have to pick up milk fever before it starts and sort it myself, because it's going to be such a common thing, not only with dairy cows, but especially with Jersey cows. So second half of the question, okay, this dream has now come to fruition. It's in reality. I got your, video the other day when the old JT Gelatt coming down the lane. Oh, yeah, I'll keep rewatching that video. It's somebody's day. But I also think there's something quite nostalgic about jerseys as well that they remind me of my dad. I love. yeah. So how did that, you know? Sounds like a bit of a cheesy question, I guess. But, you know, when you actually achieve something that you've always come to do, you know, how did that feel? Well, I was you know what? I'm not I'm very, straight down the line person, but like, I was walking behind them at one point. So the the guys from Lilley who actually they've been absolutely brilliant, honest and have been so good, they held them on the lane. then just, just to stop them haring off down the lane, they held them on the lane and then we pushed them and then I walked behind them down the lane just to make sure they didn't come backwards. And at one point I was just walking down these girls, putting them on the bottom, and I was like, oh my God. I'm literally like, got it? I'm going to cry. This is ridiculous. I'm like, I've got Jack. a lot that we know to come with the drone because I just thought, I just need to not have my phone out. I need to be in the moment and concentrate on actually working. But I was so desperate to capture it and keep it. And he literally he did an. Absolutely. And then, you know what? People think we're so ridiculous. You were concentrating on video in something. Yes. Ability walls because it's what I enjoy. And I wanted that. That's the bit that I wanted, but I didn't want to take my eye off the ball and not be doing my job. And, you know, be the idiot with the camera out, you know, taking a video. So it literally it was from the air. And it is it's such a good video. I really, really enjoyed what making it and watching it. And it was just like, I don't know, it was just like a little mini film coming together. I loved it, that's it. You know, like when you know, you know, so my dad has all these aerial photo. yeah. Yeah, we've got this family guy who sold us a farm. Exactly. So it's only the next stage on his journey to get that drone footage. the time that this kind of epic, change happened, I think that's just all relevant. Well, there's there's actually in the drone footage, there's a lot of stills of there's three farms around us, like close by and on a got like it got our neighbor Linda's house and Malcolm as well, our other neighbor. And I just thought I'll, I'll find a really good one and I'll go and I'll print it out big and take it to them because I just, I think they'd really enjoy that because it does. And as well, it's that time of year where the grass is starting to grow and the sheep have been on and they've shortened some. So you've got some fields that are like a really light yellow green and then some that are really dark, some just been plowed and it looked it was like a patchwork. It was really, really nice. It was a good time of year to be doing it. So just going off that, in terms of like videos and that sort of thing, let's just finish on because we are going to revisit, you in around six months time to see how it's all going and make sure that, well, a grown I a grown a beard. You, picture that you've aged 15 is the jersey that I will I got Botox and I'll be like that. I like, but that would, you know, keep mentioning your social media. You've got a huge following and rightly so. You've you've kind of got this very down to earth vibe. You tell it as it is. You've documented this whole journey. You know, I guess part of it as well is letting other farmers see what you're doing. I know that, you know, we want to give this public perception of the industry and tell them what really goes on. But actually, it's nice for the farmers to be able to, you know, to, you know what? You've made some work. Yes. And do you know what social media it sounds really, but you make some of your relationships with people that are doing, doing social media as well, because there's not many people that can relate to exactly what you're doing daily. But I know that all the farmers as well, and they everything you do, it's like, yeah, like the silly things. Like the other day I was like, I was whingeing about keeping sawdust on beds. And Tom Pemberton was like, yeah, get that. And it's like, you just get it because you're also in the same boat. And I think that's important to put out. So, you know, if Tom gets it or, you know, somebody else gets it, how many people that don't create videos and they're just watching online get it? But I got like the real like bit where you realize you grateful you do it. I got a letter yesterday, from a man and, with a jar of wild garlic, pesto. Because I'd been picking, I'd been picking wild garlic. And obviously, I'm not one in people now who videos absolutely everything. and put it on YouTube. But I've been more cherry picking what I'm putting on and keeping a bit of a, like, I don't necessarily go to the park with my kids and video them and put it on YouTube if you're not. I mean, it's very farm base up keeping it that way. I don't put my friends on a very, very road, very put family on that kind of thing. The kids do make an occasional appearance, but I'm it's up to them if they want to join in or not. I'm not going to make them. this guy had written to a and he was like, I'm having a bit of a crap time in life, to be honest, and I and I was, you know, watching YouTube and you, Joe and Ollie and Tom, you take my mind off it and you make a really crappy time bearable. So I just wanted to say thank you. And I was literally stood by. I was exactly here where I am doing some office work. I was cable and I was still outside that door. I was just like lots of tears. I was like, it makes it. That's why you do it. Like out of everything. That is why you do it. But yeah, no, I love it. I love making videos, I love farming and I love putting them together. I mean, we are nearly finished now, but also just to, you know, to round this off, I just like how we started the conversation. You know, I kind of always you said you always kind of felt like a bit of a, you know, you weren't really outspoken on anything. You just coasting through life. Yeah. Now you've actually been able to like, you've made a plan, you've seen the plan today. You've got this really successful. So I business almost in social media. Yeah. Like that. That's quite a nice feeling to look back on. Oh it's absolutely wonderful. It's it's crazy. I don't know I think you would never have been able to tell me that this was what I was going to be doing. Like, or the Fat Joe know it's me. It's funny. You can get really swept up in social media, and you can you really can get to thinking, do something. I think it was like it was a book. I can't remember whose book it once. And it said, if you ever get to think you something, go and try and, or do your neighbor's dog about like, seriously as the dog walks and you wouldn't believe it. I've annoyed you. But don't you run away. but, like, you can very easily get swept up in things, especially when you surround yourself. When you get doing it more seriously, you wind up with people you know, working for you behalf and agents and all this stuff, and they can blow smoke up your ass. Let's be honest. but just remember that you are a normal person. And I think unless you've been through that and you had felt so useless, you wouldn't realize, you wouldn't realize. And I just think if you can help 1 or 2 people, it makes it all worthwhile. Definitely. But just stay humble. Like, don't think you're special because you know. And you know what? If you took my phone off me tomorrow, I'm the same as every person ever. Like it? Just it it is, isn't it? You know, I'm still nice to my friends. I'm still the same person that I always am. Yeah. You've got to be very careful how you put yourself across. But I do try and I do try to make more lighthearted kind of comedy about it than anything fairly serious. More often than not, I just think that you can you can get into that preachy mentality as well, can't you, with socials where, you know, if you make a big fuss about something and preach, it gets clicks and likes and it's not always about that and it really isn't about that. And I think that's when you start to excel at something, is when you realize that you're doing it for the right reasons. now, you asked me this two years ago when I saw on TikTok I was completely different person. I was comparing myself to every other person. I was comparing myself to all the young girls with the short shorts and wondering why they were getting clicks and likes and why I wasn't. Well, obviously because they're young girls in short shorts and the gorgeous and I'm 35 and I don't look that good at short shorts. It's just you've got to find your place. And I think being comfortable with who you are and how you are building an audience as well. I have now built an audience, I think, through showing hard work like humility, being humble, having a good sense of humor. And I'd rather have an audience for that, because going forwards, if I continue to do that, they continue to relate to me. Whereas I think in when we were at, Blackpool, there was a slight conversation and I think it was probably me, because it's one of the things that I've learned social media wise. And I think it's really important to realize you build your own audience and mine relate to me that they wouldn't necessarily relate to you or somebody else. Just because we're farming, it doesn't mean that the necessarily going to gel with you. So, you know, all these followers come over and look at my videos and the rubbish, they could hate it. In fact, a lot of them did. And I remember I think it was like Farmer Pearson wanted to add to give me a shout out one of his videos. Anyway, loads and loads of people came over and watched mine, which I was so grateful for, and one of them was like, I don't like you timelapses. And I was like, well, don't watch that because there's going to be a lot of them. And you just, you've got to get into that groove of building your own kind of uploads and tailoring your content to them. But if you do it authentically, you don't need to tailor anything. You just do what you're doing and you find that these people are already there because, you know, that's the audience you built. It's just a really interesting, like apart from farming social media as my second like most fun thing to talk about, because it's just such a different industry that not many people get. Yeah. And just going to for anyone listening, when you went to Blackpool, Charlotte was obviously on our social media panel. Oh yes, I was. That's what I'm and I was gonna say. But then I couldn't remember what the official platform was. So I was like, it was like the adults in the boardroom. Well, all the kids out like I was like. Like when the cones came in. Yeah, I don't even know yet, but, yeah. It was not like that. Got me just a sea of orange. yeah. I think, I think it was a really interesting, panel that actually just in terms of, you know, when you say, you know, you've got your farming business, but then actually, you know, you social media is it is a form of business. And the idea of is almost a form of diversification and it feeds into each other. So yeah, you know, like we always say, well, mine, all mine, all my social media stuff goes through the farm, everything goes through the farm. it just how it was, how it was set up in the beginning. And, it just always has done. And like, I can buy, I can go out and buy five heifers of back of YouTube. I see that always says, oh no, we're on it as a contract. They have to pay. And but I think that in itself is amazing. And but it's funny, I know people that disagree with that. I shouldn't they, they don't see it as a diversification. They see it as, I don't know, some kind of insult to farming that we should have to do that. And I get it, I do I get that, I do get that. But like for me, it's so linked that, yeah, it's the only the right thing to do is, is that, well, we are going to catch up again. Like I said, in six months time, around that time period. so I can't wait to see what happens. Obviously, I follow you anyway, so I'll keep this bojosos just more jerseys, please. But yeah, well done. And obviously making it all happen because it's not easy to see that journey through. yeah, yeah, let's see what happens. It'd be nice to be farming and not building, I think. Yeah. Get into the nitty gritty of it now. Yeah, yeah I know. Well, I gained like three stone. I'll be hairy off you, just like you. What are you looking at? It'll make for a good video. Charlotte. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll do it before and after. Yeah. My evolution into a dairy farmer and plastic clothing. That was really good to hear. How Charlotte might have taken that dream and brought it to life, but also how the mitigating financial risk and creating that route to market Charlotte will be back in a few months. Time to talk about how it's all gone, but don't forget to subscribe to the Farmers Guardian podcast on your favorite platform, and we'll be back again next week. And.