Is there a problem with young farmer culture?

“Sex, drugs, alcohol.” That is the answer given by a young woman on social media platform TikTok to the question “what happens at Young Farmers?”

This is certainly not the image the National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (NFYFC) would want to portray.

See also: Find our other Level the Field campaign features in one place 

Young Farmers’ Clubs across the country are renowned for their charitable work and have laid the groundwork for many former members to go on to have hugely successful careers.

They provide 23,000 members with the opportunity to develop skills such as public speaking, to work with their local communities and take part in various competitions.

But the TikTok video referenced above has been liked more than 30,000 times and there is growing concern about some of the more problematic elements of young farmer culture.

The matter has been thrust into the spotlight recently by the young farmers’ DIY AGM, held in Blackpool at the beginning of May and run by the Young Farmers Community.  

The event is designed to replace the old NFYFC annual convention, which was cancelled in 2018 following anger from the public at the antisocial behaviour displayed by some attendees.

Criticism

This year, while there were no arrests at the DIY AGM, T-shirts worn by some of the attendees drew criticism from Blackpool locals on Facebook community pages.

Slogans included: “I can run faster horny than you can scared”, “For the sporting birds I can tighten the choke”, “Masseys are red, Fendt are green, drop your pants, I’ll make you cream” and “BBF – Back British Farming or Bring Back Fingering, I’m an advocate for both.”

Many of the T-shirts are printed by the DIY AGM organisers, with the majority of those advertised on the Young Farmers Community social media pages bearing sexual slogans.

Farmers Weekly has also seen photographs of girls at the DIY events with “slut” written on their arms and “free head” written on their foreheads.

While the DIY AGM is attended by both Young Farmers’ Club members and non-club members, the NFYFC insists it has no affiliation to the Young Farmers Community and does not endorse its events.

Some of the YFC members spoken to by Farmers Weekly who were at the DIY AGM said they had never really thought about the T-shirts before, because they were “just part of” the scene.

“It’s always been a thing,” said Beth.* “But as a member of the public, if I saw them, I’d probably be fairly horrified.

“It doesn’t look good as an outsider, us wearing those slogans. And they have definitely got worse.”

Another member who attended the DIY AGM, Helen*, said: “I did read some that made my skin crawl this weekend. But to some extent, I don’t see them as that bad, because it’s not personal.”

Threatening

For some women outside the farming community, however, the whole event was perceived as threatening.

Campaign group Reclaim Blackpool received a report from a local young woman that she had been groped by a young farmer during the DIY AGM. 

The group, which maps instances of harassment towards women and girls, was told she had been afraid to walk home because of the T-shirts and the behaviour on display.

Most of the women Farmers Weekly has spoken to said they had also been touched or had their clothing interfered with, both at the DIY AGM and at YFC events.

“It happened at every event that had drinking around it,” said former YFC member Terri*.

Different rules

But two members and one former member said they didn’t view the behaviour as inappropriate in this context, because there are “different rules” at young farmer events.  

“In terms of sexual assault or sexual harassment, I’ve experienced that in a nightclub,” said Helen. “Have I experienced that in Young Farmers? Also yes, but I’ve never thought of it as that.

“[It could be] being grabbed, being pulled, people pulling your skirt up, people taking your top up. If somebody did that in another setting, it’s a different story and I don’t understand why that is.”

Beth agreed. “I don’t know how to explain it. You just feel like you’re part of a big community and a big family, even if you don’t know these people. But it is completely unacceptable. I understand that.

“My sister has a good friend from Liverpool University, and if she took her to a farmers’ party and she got groped or got her top pulled down like you do at AGM, she’d be absolutely horrified.

“She would go to the police about it because she’s not used to that ‘normal’ behaviour of young farmers.”

Explanation 

Terri has another explanation. “It was happening everywhere with everyone, so you didn’t see it as a problem, because no one said anything,” she said.

“Speaking to other girls who I went with, we all felt the same. But because no one had said anything, we all just thought ‘they’re fine with it, so why aren’t I?’”

Terri told stories of men grabbing her in front of her partner and pulling her hair, and of her friend being shouted at to “get her boobs out” after being scooped up on a boy’s shoulders.

“A few days later, I asked if she really wanted to do that. And she said ‘not really, but everyone was doing it’.

“For me, I thought [farming] was my calling and I just wanted to feel accepted,” Terri said.

“And I was willing to put myself in a position that I wasn’t comfortable with because people said I was one of the lads and I was sound.

“I perceived that as my confidence, when in reality I wasn’t confident, I’d just let myself be a different person that they liked.”

Another woman, Harriet*, who did not join YFC because she was put off by the culture, said there was a sense that if you didn’t play along with this kind of thing, you’d be seen as “boring”.

“To be cool, you don’t have to be among that toxic, horrible, sexualised culture,” she said.

OnlyFans

Beth, meanwhile, suggested that younger farming girls were being encouraged to behave in an overly sexualised way by a handful of female agricultural influencers who post provocative pictures on social media and make money from OnlyFans.

“They are getting all the followers and the brand deals,” she said. “These younger girls probably think if they start behaving like that, they’ll start to get noticed.”

Several of the young women Farmers Weekly spoke to said they always felt “safe” at Young Farmers events, despite hearing stories of sexual assaults taking place.

“You hear ‘so-and-so tried to do this to her, he tried to do that to her, he took her down an alleyway or he tried to push her up against the wall’,” said Harriet.

“They’re always the things people don’t talk about because they feel ashamed and think they shouldn’t have got themselves in that position, because we live in a culture where the first thing to do is blame women for what they wear or how they acted.”

Another former YFC member, Anna*, told of an occasion where a man she had met at YFC unbuttoned her top and put her hand on his trousers during a pub trip.

The incident didn’t take place at a YFC event, but an ex-county chair was made aware of it. Neither Anna nor he reported the matter.

“If I wasn’t so scared, I would probably have reported him,” said Anna. “He was renowned for being like that.

“There are groups that are like that and there seems to be a different set of rules for young farmers. It is an awful side of it.”

County v National

Two of the girls Farmers Weekly spoke to said they believed there was a big difference in how men behave at club and county level, compared to at national level.

“From the county I’m in, you do get the odd issue, but I wouldn’t say it’s any different to the kinds of issues that you get at university or any other kind of young persons’ drinking culture,” said Melanie*, a YFC county chair.

“I see more respect between the two genders in young farmers than I do anywhere else.

“Women are seen as very strong and I’ve never seen any of the men treating them in an overly-sexualised way. There is possibly a difference in the area that you’re in.

“But you do have people overseeing Young Farmers parties that are the older members and people running the club, and we have security so if anything does happen, it gets reported.”

Melanie was also keen to point out that many non-YFC members now attend the DIY AGM, and suggested it was a small minority who were causing problems for the active members.

But Terri said in her experience of YFC, all she remembered was “excessive drinking and a few meetings”.

“I don’t remember anyone going there for what the organisation is about, it was just an excuse to go to the parties,” she added.

This perception of YFC could be putting potential future members off joining.

“Thinking about it now, if I had a daughter, would I want her to be in YFC? Yes, but probably only up to the age of 16, until she finds out what a Young Farmers’ party is,” said Helen.

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*The six members and former members of YFC quoted in this story have all had their names changed. Farmers Weekly also consulted with several other people involved with YFC, either in advisory roles or as members, while putting this story together.