Rural women across Yorkshire are being brought together online for a special hour-long Autumn Gathering organised by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s Women In Farming Network.
Featuring five inspiring speakers with vast experience of working with and as part of rural communities and businesses, the event will provide timely messages of support and inspiration following a summer of cancelled agricultural shows and other social occasions.
Kindly sponsored by Savills and The Prince’s Countryside Fund, with support from Barclays Agriculture, the Autumn Gathering starts at 10.30am on Tuesday 13th October. Addressing the theme of ‘A Momentous Year’ will be NFU West Riding Chair Rachel Hallos, The Bishop of Ripon, the Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Olivia Spilman of Spilman Farming, Consultant Psychologist Dr Caroline Knott and Susan Briggs, Director of The Tourism Network.
The gathering will be chaired by Judith Wood, Barclays’ Agricultural Manager and will offer the rural community a sense of its collective strength and some timely messages of positivity amid otherwise trying times for many families and businesses.
Kate Dale, who co-ordinates the Women In Farming Network, said:
We continue to live through extraordinary times, unlike anything ever seen by current generations. Everyone has been affected by the coronavirus situation.
Many of our usual activities and events at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society have been disrupted, including our annual Women In Farming Conference, which is always planned for October each year. However, not to be defeated, we are taking this event online and tailoring it to current circumstances.
Therefore, you are very warmly invited to join our Women In Farming Autumn Gathering on Tuesday (13th October) from 10.30am to 11.30am in the comfort your own home or office. The gathering will consider ‘A Momentous Year’ and our fantastic range of five speakers will offer their take on 2020 so far and share their reactions, adaptations, advice and support to all those looking in on 13th October.
Our hope is that much of the discussion will resonate with our audience and offer reassurance and a sense of solidarity to everyone, both as individuals and collectively as hard working women with families, who in many cases live and work in rural outposts.
Elizabeth Nelson, Director in Savills Rural division, said:
Savills are delighted to continue to sponsor and support the Yorkshire Women in Farming Conference. Although in a different format this year, it will provide the usual high level mix of inspiration, learning and enjoyment.
All of us working in the rural sector are having to take stock and reappraise our businesses, coping with the colliding circumstances and evolving uncertainty of the impact of Covid-19, Brexit, climate change and prospect of recession.
At Savills we are helping farms and rural enterprises across the spectrum. The list of challenges and considerations can seem endless but remembering that ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’ brings hope. The more we can share ideas and expertise to collaborate and support each other, the stronger we will be in our decision making.
John Pinches, Barclays’ Agricultural Area Manager for Yorkshire and the North East of England said:
Women have always played a key part in decision making, business strategy as well as physical work on the farm. With the advances in innovative machinery and technology, farm business operation is more about management than simply performing day-to-day tasks and the next few years are definitely an exciting time for women in the farming industry.
Barclays is hugely optimistic about the future for UK farming and recognise the key role women in agriculture will play moving the industry forward in the coming years, hence we are delighted to be supporting this flagship event.
To register for this free event, see www.yas.co.uk/women-in-farming-autumn-gathering
