A “lambing buddies” network of farming women which was set up to provide practical local support during the Covid lockdown has attracted 600 volunteers and is still growing.
The movement was the inspiration of Debs Roberts from Farmton in Perthshire who will share her story with other enterprising farmers at a free Women in Agriculture Scotland (WiA) webinar next week.
Debs set up the Ladies who Lamb closed Facebook page 18 months ago for women involved in shepherding, sheep farming, shearing and contracting businesses.
It rapidly amassed 6,500 members across the UK and internationally, and when the pandemic hit during lambing this year she identified the need for solo farmers to have backup help they could trust if they became ill.
“I started the buddy network so people in need could look at a Google map and see volunteers nearby and get support from the community,” she said.
“It’s not a formal arrangement and we don’t ask for feedback so I don’t know how much it has been used in an emergency, but it has grown organically and now extends to people sharing shearers and contract work or labour. We also have a lot of vets in the group so they share technical knowledge.”
Debs says the original Ladies Who Lamb page is a closed group to ensure a safe place for members who range across all sectors of the industry.
“Some members have thousands of sheep on a hill, others have just a few pets, and the ethos is that people should be kind, and no question is a stupid question,” she said.
“Every day I’m surprised by how much support there is within the industry, and how powerful it is if you hit the right note.”
Another story of resilience to feature in next week’s webinar will be told by June Geyer who is a founding member of the WiA and its current chair.
She said: “As well as the beef and arable unit we run an agricultural engineering business near Dunfermline, and when the gyms closed during lockdown, we were asked by a customer to produce a set of steel weights as they were almost impossible to come by.
“He shared our work on Facebook and by the next day we had two orders and now we’ve made 200 sets which kept the business going and meant we didn’t need to furlough any staff.
“Farmers have to think out of the box every single day, we’re all used to it, so it maybe helps make us more resilient.”
Tickets for Tuesday’s WiA webinar are available at eventbrite.co.uk