Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
Sorry Miss, the cows school work!
How does teenage farmer Flossy Biss manage to deliver lambs and muck out cowsheds while sitting her GCSEs? A new TV series reveals all
Flossy Biss simply can’t understand why it takes some teenage girls so long to get ready for school in the morning. Some of her friends need nearly two hours, and that’s even without the need to rid themselves of silage smells, she jokes. ‘Can you believe it?’ she asks. ‘They have to shower, dry their hair, straighten it, do their make-up… It’s ridiculous. Some of them get up earlier than me!’
It is indeed ridiculous when you consider what Flossy, who is just 17, does every morning before she leaves for college. Like her friends she has a rigid routine, but hers includes pulling on wellies, schlepping through muddy farmyards, feeding cows, bedding down calves, shovelling hay, and more. Depending on the time of year, she might even slip in the delivery of a lamb before she jumps into the shower, grabs a bagel and heads for lessons.
‘This year was a bit of a nightmare for that,’ she admits. ‘The lambing season coincided with my GCSEs. It all got a bit hairy. You can’t exactly say to a ewe, “Can you hold off for a bit? I’ve got a chemistry exam this morning.”’
Yes, Flossy is a farmer – a schoolgirl farmer. Up until a few years ago, the teenager – who grew up on a 100-acre farm in Somerset – would have described farming as a hobby; it was her parents who did all the hard work. All that changed, however, when Flossy’s parents split up and her father moved out. Flossy’s mother took over, but, with a job of her own, couldn’t manage to look after the animals and land too. And since none of Flossy’s older siblings lived at home, Flossy – then only 15 – stepped in and persuaded her mother that she could keep the farm going.
Flossy’s story is part of a new Channel 4 series charting the lives of the next generation of British farmers. It features a clutch of fledgling farmers, all in their teens or 20s, and delivers a powerful, often poignant, message about what it’s like to start out in the industry today. All the big agricultural issues are here, but the real sto- ries are about the young individuals grappling to find their place in a fast-changing world.
Last week the series followed young guns Robbie and Nick, and Ed, a financial whizz-kid who quit his City job and glamorous lifestyle to return to the family farm. This week’s show underlines the struggle to carve out an identity when you come from a farming family. The show’s producers discovered Flossy when they were filming one of her brothers at his agricultural college. ‘I was the annoying little sister in the background who kept trying to get on camera. But when they got talking to me, they realised the extent of my involvement with the farm and asked me to take part. I don’t think it had occurred to them that a schoolgirl could actually run things.’
The footage of Flossy is quite remarkable. At one point she leaps from a car to check on some newborn lambs, still in her school uniform and smart black shoes as she hurtles into the field. What do her schoolmates think of her double life? ‘I think they’re intrigued,’ she laughs. ‘When I tell them what I’ve been doing that day they give me strange looks, but they’re interested enough to ask questions.’ And her teachers? ‘They’ve been incredibly supportive. My headmaster told me he was very proud that I managed to do my GCSEs and keep the farm going.’
The farm is no longer the huge concern it was when her father was at the helm. Eighty of the 100 acres are now rented out to another farmer. But on the remaining 20, Flossy tends 30 sheep and 12 cows, ‘although three of those belong to my brother Henry’. Why was she so compelled to take it on? ‘I wanted to show my father I could do it without him,’ she says candidly. It seems a huge responsibility – and one which must make normal teenage life impossible. ‘I’m not sure it does,’ she says. ‘I like to be in bed early, just because it’s hard work, but I still go out with friends. My mum will always step in to give me a breather.’
Does she see farming as a long-term career choice? It appears so. ‘My mum thinks I should aim higher and establish another career, and have the farm as an extra. But I quite like the idea of building it up, increasing the stock. I can’t imagine not being a part of this.’
The series doesn’t always make for comfortable viewing. In one sequence, Flossy takes her first batch of lambs to the abattoir. She admits to a few tears as she shooed them out of the trailer. ‘But that’s because it was my first time,’ she says. ‘This time round I have 30 pregnant ewes, and I’m not going to let myself get so attached. You can’t in this game.’