Growing up in the busy town of Paisley, Rowena Pate has successfully sought out the opportunity to combine her love the outdoors and farming by undertaking an apprenticeship at Linburn Farm in Erskine.

The organic farm is owned by Liz Stevenson’s father and is managed by Liz and her husband Graham Auld, who both juggle their own demanding full-time careers, as a commercial airline pilot and technical director of an IT company respectively, with the running of the farm.

Prior to undertaking her apprenticeship, Rowena had been coming to help out and work at Linburn Farm for several years. “I’ve been coming here since I was 13. Walking the dogs, grooming the horses and things like that,” said Rowena.

“I remember when Graham was injecting the sheep and I couldn’t even look at it.”

Rowena initially enrolled on an art and photography course, however, she jumped at the opportunity when Liz and Graham offered her the chance of a “gap year” working at Linburn Farm.

Rowena’s work on the farm coincides with an apprenticeship course run by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) which will allow her to gain a qualification upon completion of the modules.

The day-to-day running of the farm is now second nature to Rowena.

She said: “The amount I’ve learnt in three years is just phenomenal.

“I would like to go onto another farm to see how they run things.”

Linburn Farm

Located in the busy commuter town of Erskine, Graham describes Linburn Farm as “an oasis of countryside, in the middle of a development”.

The farm has been in Liz’s family for almost 150 years. “My great grandfather came here in 1872 and he was a tenant farmer. After the war my dad and his brother bought the farm.

“The farm was a dairy farm with Ayrshires, and then it was Charolais. Then my mum bought the first Aberdeen Angus.”

Linburn Farm is currently home to a closed herd of around 48 Aberdeen Angus cattle, a flock of just over 50 Texels and Texel Mule crosses as well as horses, hens, ducks and bees. In total, Liz, Graham and Rowena manage around 135ac – some of which is owned.

Haylage and hay are also produced on the farm. The beef produced at Linburn Farm is grass fed, with the young bulls receiving concentrates.

Most of the heifers will calve for the first time at two years old, however, Liz and Graham are keen to keep the smaller heifers back from calving until they are more mature.

“Since we started this policy we haven’t had any problems at calving at all,” said Graham.

Liz also highlighted the importance of selecting the correct size bull for each herd.

She added: “For me, and for Scotland, we should produce more native beef, instead of just focusing on getting it to a certain amount of kilos.

“We have some experiments with our animals and sold a heifer as grass fed beef at 10 years old, and people really liked it.”

Opportunities following apprenticeship

For the time being, Rowena plans to continue her work at Linburn Farm and to continue with her studies. In particular, she hopes to have the opportunity to study some aspects of farming in more detail – such as a lambing or calving.

Through her apprenticeship Rowena has developed a variety of skills including record keeping, working with vets and fencing.

“I like the physical work on the farm, particularly with the sheep. Lambing is my favourite time of year. That and seeing a sick animal get better,” said Rowena.

Bringing together her skills and passion for both art and farming, Rowena hopes she may be able to later explore the wool industry – with a particular focus on using wool from native, rarer breeds.

“I’d love to live on a farm but it would have to ethical farming, where the animals were kept to the end of their lives,” said Rowena.

She added: “I really like working with sheep in particular and would love to mix art and farming together. The mules are easy to work with but I would have to look into what the demand is looking for in wool. I would like to venture out in the rarer breeds and it’s interesting that Merino sheep can survive here too.”

Liz added: “As a nation, we have sheep to produce lamb, maybe we should have sheep just to produce wool.”

Benefits of an apprenticeship

Through Rowena’s work and her college apprenticeship, there are benefits for both herself as well as Liz and Graham.

For Rowena, the opportunity at Linburn Farm has allowed her to gain experience as well as an in-depth insight into an industry that she may not have received such an exposure to through a college course alone.

Graham noted that as he and Liz are busy with their other careers, Rowena is often left to take care of the farm. He said: “If it wasn’t for her being here, things wouldn’t get done, or they wouldn’t get done very often. It’s phenomenal. Rowena knows all the animals, it’s that level of involvement that’s really very useful. She makes the effort to really look at everybody.”

Graham added: “She takes a lot of responsibility. We’ve set that open environment that if something is going wrong, we put our hands up and we all learn from it.

“Because Rowena is here, we’re involved in her education and so it educates us as well.”

Both Liz and Graham are urging other farmers and crofters to consider taking on an apprentice to allow someone to gain experience within the industry.

“As a farming community we have a responsibility and we should be encouraging young people to come into the business,” said Liz.

Rowena said: “Most people in farming are born into it and there’s lots of people who have never had the opportunity.

“Folk back home still find it hard to believe that I’m farming.”

Graham added: “I think it’s tremendous that somebody not from a farming background has the determination and drive to work in this industry.

“Seeing Rowena’s efforts and commitment has been an inspiration.”