Dales star enjoying ‘the best of both worlds’
Shepherdess talks about farming and public life
DIFFERENT WAYS of life collide at Countryside Live as the best of rural Yorkshire is brought to Harrogate, so having Huddersfieldraised Dales shepherdess Amanda Owen as one of the event’s guest stars seemed entirely apt.
Having first risen to fame as a star of ITV show The Dales in 2011, Owen runs 1,000 sheep at Ravenseat, more than 1,300ft above sea level at the very top of the Yorkshire Dales and has so far authored two books about her extraordinary life as a mother-ofnine on a remote working farm.
Speaking at the show, she told of how lucky she felt to have “a foot in two different worlds”, with her journey to the show an illustration of such. Her Saturday morning began by loading a pile of her books into a pick-up that had been used the day before by her husband Clive to ferry livestock to the auction mart.
A livewire presence, Owen gave entertaining on-stage talks and signed copies of her books at the showground. On her mission at the show, she said: “Hopefully try to inspire them (show visitors).
“I like talking to people. Where I live, six months of the year it’s full of visitors walking through the farm. The other six months, it’s completely cut off so I think I get the best of both worlds.”
The worst of the winter weather puts the farm in lockdown, but owing to its isolated geography the farm is without internet access year-round and only last week the family had to resort to using river water for washing up when the electricity and water supplies failed.
“It’s character-building,” the shepherdess said of the challenges she faces at Ravenseat.
With a large family to look after, plus her sheep, just how does she cope? “It’s all about what’s actually important. I’m no domestic goddess, as long as there is food on the table and the children are happy and everything is going along, I’m fine with it.
“The sheep do their own thing, because they’re a hoof flock, they are roaming over 2,000 acres and they are more hands-off. You bring them in for clipping, things like that, but from the beginning of November when we put the tups out, through to lambing time in late April, that’s when it’s more hands-on, which perfectly ties in with when people leave us alone because the weather changes and the footpaths are re-routed.”
It is a challenging time for sheep farmers. Forty per cent of British lamb is exported to the EU, leaving many fearful of the impact of Brexit on future trade.
“The general aura about auction marts is quite flat because no one can make any plans,” she said. “Even us farming on a hill end at the very top of Swaledale, we’re very much subject to global forces. We take our sheep into the auction to sell to other farmers. The farmer who is buying that sheep off us doesn’t think he can put his hand in his pocket because he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.”
Her own outlook is resolutely upbeat though. The shepherdess said: “You just have to watch the sunrise over our green and pleasant land and take heart that we are lucky to live in God’s Own County. We have all this great produce and we have to make the most of it and come together, whether you are rural or urban, and talk to each other.”