We’re farmers who happen to be women. It shouldn’t be remarkable

Michelle Bruce fell in love with farming at an early age.

The owners of a farm close to her childhood home in Aberdeenshire would let her help bottle-feed orphaned lambs.

The 28-year-old now runs a sheep farm and does not think that being a woman in a male-dominated field holds her back in any shape or form.

She studied at SRUC in Aberdeen and specialist agricultural university Harper Adams in Shropshire before returning to Aberdeenshire to buy a flock of sheep and start a business.

She now has 800 breeding ewes and her farm near the village of Udny is going from strength to strength, with Bruce recently opening a sheepdog training school. Her first sheepdog demonstrations take place next month.

Bruce believes the great work of Scottish women farmers is epitomised by groups such as Women In Agriculture Scotland, which provides women-led training opportunities that Bruce has taken part in.

She hopes that one day being a woman who runs her own farm will no longer be remarked upon, and that she will be seen as just a farmer rather than a “woman farmer”.

“It would be nice if we reached a level where our voices are heard that we could start to lose women in agriculture groups because we wouldn’t need them as much,” said Bruce.

“Women don’t need to be anything different – we have been farmers for years and there’s plenty of us out there.”