A 22-year-old farmer who chose to not follow the trend of attending university, says she loves being “covered in mud” instead of being stuck in an office.
Erin Murgatroyd is a herd manager at a dairy farm in Devon. She turned to farming as soon as she finished her A-levels and now looks after 400 cows on her farm in Blackawton.
Ms. Murgatroyd said she felt pressure from her teachers to attend university and wanted to get into farming “out of spite.” However, looking back, she doesn’t regret her decision. She earns £32,000 ($40,430) a year and spends her days mucking out sheds and milking cows.
“While I was in school, I got good grades, and they wanted me to do basically anything else,“ Ms. Murgatroyd said. ”As soon as I mentioned farming, they shut it down completely, and it made me put my back up.”
She added that she might have considered attending university if she'd wanted to be a doctor or an architect. She admits that if her teachers had encouraged her to pursue an agricultural degree then she would have given it more consideration.
“I love farming as it’s so practical,” Ms. Murgatroyd said. “Being in the outdoors, there are so many skills I have been able to learn.
“I love taking care of the cows and take pride in producing good quality milk.”
Ms. Murgatroydenjoys the company of her favorite cows and the organized chaos that comes with the job.
She began working at Handham View farm, a beef farm in Woodleigh, Devon, at the age of 18, where she would handle calf feeding and rearing and check stock, earning £8 ($10) an hour.
After working tirelessly for five years, she is now able to work for 12 days continuously, and then take two days off.
“I’m on a salary now of £32,000 - which is a lot better for me and really good for [my] age,” she said.
Ms. Murgatroyd and her boyfriend, Matt Neal, 27, a builder, are looking into building a house and say they would not be in that position if she'd racked up debt from going to university.
“I feel like I am further along in my practical farming knowledge at my age than if I was at university,” she said. “As I would have missed out on those years of actual work, and I would still make the same decision to not go to university.”
Ms. Murgatroyd is the only woman in her family to go into farming. Her great uncle, Trevor Wilson, 67, farmed all his life, and the family grew up near a farm. She is now encouraging other women and girls to consider farming as a career.
“It is more male-dominated,“ she said. ”We have a young farmers’ federation, and the girls in it are basically estate agents.
“I am the only one that’s farming as a full-time job.”
When old farmers look at her, they’re astounded and shocked to see her completely covered in dirt.
“Females are notoriously better at dairy farming than men because you’ve got to be really attentive.”
Ms. Murgatroyd sometimes feels like she missed out on certain experiences such as having a gap year or traveling but said she likes what she does and believes it’s been worth it.
“You sacrifice that to be able to do it,” she said. “Farming isn’t a job you can just go into.
“If I want to swap jobs in 10 years’ time, I may need to go back to education to get the necessary qualifications, which isn’t a worry for me.”
Ms. Murgatroyd is among the growing number of youngsters embarking on careers in heritage industries, according to figures published by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education—the UK government’s skills training agency.
