Video: 90 and Counting: Mixed farmer, Frankie Turner, Leicestershire

Fourth-generation farmer Frankie Turner, 18, tells Farmers Weekly about working with her family, her studies and her passion for welding.

I live on Grange Farm just north of Leicestershire.

We used to be a dairy farm about 20 years ago, then we packed up the dairy and introduced the beef herd – we’ve got a mixture of Herefords and Lincoln Reds, as well as pedigree Bazadaise.

See also: Video: 90 and Counting – livestock farmer Sharon Hammond

The farm was bought in the late 1950s by my great-grandma and great-granddad.

Back then they were milking, and my granddad carried on the milking with my granny.

Dairy was getting expensive so they started producing beef, and growing wheat and barley and oats.

By the time my brother and I were born, we were a full-time beef and arable farm.

My granny is still working on the farm; she’s in her mid-70s. Then there’s my mum and my uncle, me and my brother.

So there’s a mix of generations – new perspectives, old perspectives.

Watch the full video interview below.

On farming heroes…

My uncle is the one that’s given me the opportunities to drive some bigger machinery, and inspired me to be innovative and creative.

Then there’s my mum and my gran, who have normalised being a woman in farming and never made me feel like I shouldn’t be part of it.

And my dad would say: “Well, my son’s going to do it, so why can’t my daughter do it as well?”

On agriculture and education…

There’s not much mention of agriculture at school, especially for women. They focus on the big universities that you can go to, but agriculture is never considered at all really.

I’m doing French, business, and media A-levels at the moment. French because I worked on a farm in France in 2023, when I was 16, and it was such an eye-opening experience.

We were in the Champagne region where farming is on a big scale. They’ve got no hedges, so it was interesting how they divide up their fields and cultivate all the crops.

The business A-level has given me a broad knowledge I can use in the future to improve a farming business.

On promoting the industry…

Doing Midlands Farmers’ social media on Instagram and TikTok helped develop skills I can use to promote agriculture.

I want people to see the better quality of British produce and the higher animal welfare compared to food that we import. 

It’s incredibly important to be a young female voice in farming because more and more young girls are coming into it – we are breaking down gender barriers.

On the future of the farm..

I’m very interested in how we can create new machinery that’s better for the environment – using less fertiliser, less spraying.

I’m really into welding and engineering and enjoy making things that help our farm – for instance, we make all our gates, and my uncle and I like making things such as parts for drills.

We’ve also focused on biosecurity for TB, creating some rollers that go on creep feeders and water troughs to stop the badger getting to the food or urinating around it.

We just want to be able to carry on with the jobs we’ve done the whole of our lives. It’s such a tight-knit community and we just love farming.