Video: 90 and Counting – Milly Garnett, young farmer, Ayrshire
Milly Garnett © MAG/Colin Miller In the penultimate article in our series focusing on a farmer born in each of the decades since Farmers Weekly first published in the 1930s, we meet young farmer Milly Garnett, eight.
We are in Scotland in a village called Coylton. We milk cows and we have lots of tractors and machines. We have potatoes on the farm and we grow lots of things.
My friends think it’s really cool living on a farm because you get your own milk and you get to see lots of animals.
It means you don’t have to go to the shop and waste your money on buying things when you can just plant your own things and eat them.
See also: Video: 90 and Counting: Mixed farmer, Frankie Turner, Leicestershire
Watch full video interview and read the text below.
On showing…
I like to show calves. My mum, my dad and my granddad got me into showing and help me with it. What you do, you pick a calf with four even legs and make sure it’s very clean and healthy.
You get to be friends with calves and you get to name your calves; it’s just really nice.
First you make sure they get used to going on a halter. When you get to the show, you put your calf on the halter and take them around the trails and get them used to all the sounds in the showground.
Milly Garnett with granddad Allan, dad Stephen, brother Isaac and mum Samantha © MAG/Colin Miller
On farming ambitions…
I would like, when I grow up, to be a teacher and a farmer at the same time. I’m going to organise my own farm education school for those who live in cities and towns and don’t even know where their milk comes from.
It’s very important they know where their milk comes from, and vegetables, so then they just get to learn about all that different stuff.
Yes. People don’t think that farmers grow things, they think they’re just made in a factory.
On going to market…
We usually just sell cows or buy cows and sheep. I like seeing all the different sheep and I really like all the different kinds of sheep.
Our sheep are really nice, but when they escape it’s not really that good because they’re master escapers. Me and my brother get the dogs and then we chase them around with the dogs.
Every time a cow comes out, the dogs are ready in case it escapes.
On farming heroes…
My granddad tells me about how you milk cows and how he likes doing jobs on tractors.
He used to live on a farm with his dad who used to take him on rides on the quad bike. He learned a lot from then, and now he’s telling me.
2010s fact file
- 2012 Farmers block processor depots as milk is supplied at less than cost of production.
- 2013 Meat products contaminated with horsemeat are found in UK supermarkets.
- 2014 Floods on the Somerset Levels force farmers to evacuate, and it’s all hands to the decks to transport livestock, feed and bedding.
- 2016 Defra extends the hedgetrimming ban to 1 September, forcing contractors to find other work in August.
- 2018 The Lamma event is called off on day two after strong winds cause serious damage to exhibits.
Source: Farmers Weekly