It looks chaotic but we’re very focused
AS all Our Yorkshire Farm fans will know, running Ravenseat farm is a family effort.
Amanda and Clive Owen have their nine children helping out on their 2,000 acre farm in Upper Swaledale.
The family have 1,000 sheep, 40 cows, six dogs and four ponies.
Clive, 66, was running the farm alone when Huddersfield-born trainee shepherdess Amanda, now 46, first knocked on his door on a work errand in 1995.
However, things are now very different as the couple, who have been married for over two decades, have their big brood to help out around the place.
The Owen clan includes nine children – Annas, Violet, Edith, Raven, Clemmy, Nancy, Reuben, Miles and Sidney.
The kids all muck in to help out in all aspects of farm life and the parents insist they are not ‘breeding their own workforce.’
In the first episode of the new series of the popular show, Clive said: “We have a lot to do and we have to get to the end of what we do each day, but although it looks chaotic we’re very focused and aware of where we should be.
“We have a lot of things depending on us, not just children.”
Amanda pointed out that their kids want to be involved with the dayto-day running of the farm and it provides important life lessons.
She said: “We all have to work together as a family. I really don’t feel that’s a bad lesson. This is what needs to happen and we all need to do it.
“I don’t feel like that’s sort of breeding your own workforce because it’s not that.
“It’s a fact of being involved and have that responsibility and being part of something. I think that’s a good thing.”
Having grown up sharing their parents’ passion for the farming