Young Herefordshire farmer took over family business after death of her father

“I was working on my placement year, a normal day. And then I got a phone call [to say] my dad had passed away. And, from that day on I just ended up farming.”

Aged 17, Jo Lawrence became one of the UK’s youngest ever farmers following the death of her father Bob, 50, in 2017.

She was thrown into a new world of 18-hour days, along with her younger brother Fred, looking after sheep and cattle and harvesting fodder on the fourth-generation family farm in Allensmore, Herefordshire.

Both Jo and her brother had different ideas for the farm, but the plan was for them to run it together in the aftermath of their loss.

“He liked tractors, I liked stock. He wanted more arable I wanted more stock,” Ms Lawrence said.

And then, in September 2022, 20-year-old Fred was tragically killed in a car accident.

“Now it’s just me. Carrying on for them,” she said.

The 25-year-old now single-handedly runs the 200-acre beef and sheep farm, standing in tribute to her father and younger brother.

The last year has been a particular challenge for Ms Lawrence, with the farm currently enduring an extended dry spell.

The amount of fodder needed for the animals is significantly down and the grass in the fields is dry and lacking nutrition.

There is less than a quarter of the usual harvest, all due to the dry weather, and Ms Lawrence knows getting through the next few months and the winter is going to be a challenge.

“But all farmers are in the same boat. We’ll have to find fodder from somewhere and buy it in,” she said.

As a young female farmer, Ms Lawrence is still unique in the world of agriculture.

More than 40% of farmers are over the age of 65 and just 16% are women, according to government data.

She is also mum to three-year-old daughter, Pippa, and six months pregnant with her second child.

When asked if she would want her children to carry on farming and become the fifth generation to do so, she said: “She can do whatever she wants to do. She currently wants to be a ballerina.

“To grow up on a farm is really special. I was really lucky I had so much time with my dad before we lost him.

“I was with him every day. But it’s a hard industry and getting harder”.