In 2021 I was contacted by a Royal Artillery Veteran who was leaving the service after 10 years. He was relocating near to where we farmed and wanted to get into farm work but found that his lack of hands-on livestock experience was preventing him from finding a job. Roger found work in landscaping and worked for us for most of 2022, 1 morning a week. There was no task too difficult or mucky for Roger and he was a huge asset to the business whilst he was with us, having an extra person 'trained up' meant that we were also able to enjoy our first family holiday in two years, safe in the knowledge there was someone back at base who could look after the stock.
Veterans have lots of transferable skills for farming, they are hard-working, able to think around problems and are safe in machinery and other dangers on farms. Roger gave us a considerable amount during those 10 months and he learnt a huge amount himself, growing in confidence and knowledge of machinery, grazing management and livestock. Roger has found full-time employment on a farm in the Cotswold and has moved there with his family.
We paid Roger whilst he worked for us and there is always a cost training but it has given us a huge amount of joy to see that Roger is fulfilling his dream of working on a farm and living there with his family.
If you are able to support a Veteran in finding a career in farming get in contact with Jeremy Gibb at Forces Farming.
