Every month, we catch up with a young farmer in SAYFC. Jillian Kennedy is a East region chair and grew up on the family in Highland Perthshire.
What’s your background? I grew up on the family farm near Aberfeldy. I moved to the outskirts of Perth two years ago where I am now more central for work and for Young Farmers in general. However, I am frequently northbound on the A9 to go home to attend my club (Aberfeldy & District JAC) meetings, and for Highland dancing classes. As well as being an Aberfeldy & District club member, I sit on the local show and games committee, and I have recently become a Perth Show Director.
What do you do for an occupation? I am a forest manager for Scottish Woodlands. I began as a graduate trainee on their two-year training programme and have now worked in the company for 5 years. I really enjoy my job – it is great to get a balance of indoor and outdoor work, and working with a variety of clients, contractors, and colleagues in pulling projects together. We can offer a number of services including designing, writing applications, and implementing new woodland creations; developing long term forest plans; harvesting and marketing timber; and restocking and maintaining woodland across an array of sizes and locations.
Are you an office bearer in Young Farmers or have you been previously? I am currently East region chair. I have held several roles since joining the club committee when I was 15, working up to positions such as club secretary and club chair. I have also spent a number of years on the Perthshire district committee and haven taken on both secretary and chair of the district.
Why did you join Young Farmers? My parents were in SAYFC, my dad was also an Aberfeldy member so my two sisters and I grew up attending young farmers meetings and events from before we could walk! Once you’re an Aberfeldy member you are always an Aberfeldy member, as is made clear by the fantastic support the club still receive at events from past members. I think I was always going to join young farmers, but the reason I have stuck around is quite simply because it is a fantastic organisation that offers its members so much – and often I find its members don’t notice that until later on. There is such a variety to take part in whether you do it all or are just interested in specific events: whether that is sports; agri skills such as stock judging; development opportunities like speech making and our cultivating leaders programme; or an opportunity to be on stage at Perth Concert Hall at events like the East region’s cabaret in February, which showcases performances from across the region, and is my favourite competition of the year!
What has been your most memorable moment as a Young Farmer so far? As part of a group travel opportunity last year, I travelled with fifteen other members to India. We had an incredible experience there over fifteen days travelling from Delhi to Goa: it was certainly significantly different to Scotland! It was so bright, colourful, and bustling, and the people were so lovely. We saw some incredible sights such as the Taj Mahal, the Pink City of Jaipur; walked through beautifully colourful flower, spice, and vegetable markets; learned about varying histories of the cities and palaces we visited; rode camels through the desert; and experienced monsoon rains, walking through streets filled with water; and learned to navigate through the limited traffic rules, where all sorts of vehicles, pedestrians, and cows make their way through the streets in any way they can!
Favourite time of year in the agricultural calendar? The middle of spring is my favourite time of year in the agricultural calendar. Everything is beginning to grow again, the grass is (hopefully) growing well and looking very green, the daffodils are out in flower, and the trees are flushing. Of course, it isn’t spring without the sight of lambs jumping about and racing each other up and down fence lines too – nothing beats that!
If you could change something in the world, what would it be? If we could have unlimited travel, whereby it was cheap to do so, and we didn’t contribute to a personal or global carbon footprint!
How has Young Farmers impacted your life? Young Farmers has had a massive impact on my life. I have met some fantastic people here in Scotland and further afield. Taking part in speechmaking over the last couple of years has been a steep learning curve, but it has really helped me developing my public speaking skills, and improved my chairing abilities, and shown me how to be a better panel member. These skills have undoubtedly transferred into other areas of my Young Farmers progression, as well as other elements of my personal life and at work. I have taken part in numerous cabaret competitions and performed in two Perthshire District charity pantomimes, which I never would have done if it wasn’t for Young Farmers, and they have been incredible experiences where I’ve gained more confidence every time.
What are your life ambitions? I aim to progress with my career and take on new challenges both at work and in my personal life. I am still very interested in agriculture as well as forestry and I would like to explore ideas, both in Scotland and abroad, of how the two can work better together, for the sake of the rural sector as a whole. I would also like to take on more travel opportunities where I can, whether that is through Young Farmers, Highland dancing, or with friends and family.
Why would you encourage somebody to join SAYFC? There are so many fantastic opportunities with SAYFC. You can compete across a variety of events, make friendships with people across Scotland, the Five (UK) Nations, and beyond; you can develop a range of agri and non-agri based skills; take on training opportunities; and as an individual or member of a group of fellow SAYFC members, you can quite literally travel the world!