Simone Dawson – A walk in their wellies

As part of our campaign to support British farming, we created this blog to provide farmers with a platform to share their stories and experiences, offering insights beyond what you see on their Instagram accounts. Read below to take a walk in Simone’s (@simonedawsonx) wellies, a cattle farmer from Cumbria…

Hi my names Simone, I live in a small village in Cumbria where I have a small herd of pedigree limousin cattle and 1 black and white cross called Minnie moo, I also have a pet bull called Orlando.

My grandad first started the herd many years ago when out of the blue one day he just decided to buy a random limousin cow called ‘fancy’ even though we had never farmed or had a cow before. When my grandad sadly passed me and my mum continued the herd. We have had a closed herd for many years now we have kept the same blood lines to maintain fantastic temperaments and great genes.

I do most of the manual work, my mum had an accident many years ago so I try to keep her away from too much manual work to ensure she doesn’t get knocked. Mum does all of the paperwork and my dad helps with all the tractor work. I always like my mum to be there during calving time, mostly to keep me grounded and provide moral support as I really struggle with anxiety during calving.

The farming side is a hobby to me as we all have full time jobs, I find farming my safe haven and a time for me to switch off and just enjoy being with my animals. Some people think I am mad to work all the hours I do and then have the cows on top but I absolutely adore them and wouldn’t have it any other way.

From a young age by having the cows I have learned how to be responsible for all of my animals, it doesn’t matter if you have had a long hard day, whether its pouring down with rain or your not feeling quite up to it, the animals can not feed themselves and they rely on you to help them.

I owe a huge amount to my cows, when I went through a deep bout of depression where I felt I couldn’t even get out of bed, I knew I had to because they relied on me and I still to this day believe I would never of got out of that rut without them.

Farming isn’t a job, its a way of life, if you didn’t enjoy it then you will never make any success out of farming. Your animals are a reflection of you, the blood, sweat and tears shows through them. Its a whirlwind of emotions, one day you could lose a calf and think you cant do it anymore but then the next a new bundle of joy is born and you are reminded exactly why you do it and this continues throughout farming life.

The farming community is the most fantastic community you could ever be part of even people you have never met before will go above and beyond to help you.
I started TikTok with my cows a couple of years ago and it has become really popular with many kinds of people, the thing I find most intriguing is how people seem to love how much time and care I put into my animals but in reality this is what the vast majority of farmers do I am nothing special.

For anyone thinking about farming I would say go for it, prepare yourself for extremely long hours, hard work and times you will question your sanity. There will be days you will question why you do it and if you can do it. But my advice is if you love it enough the positives by far outweigh the negatives. To watch young stock grown up, to nurse an animal back to health, to see them gallop around the fields in summer, its literally the most rewarding job in the whole world.

If you’re a farmer and you’d like to contribute in our campaign to raise awareness for the incredible work in British agriculture, please drop us a DM on Instagram – @_howdenrural