Placement student joins Farming Help charities to learn more about how we help the agricultural community

Mhairi Lochhead, Farming Help placement student.

Mhairi, an agricultural student from the Royal Agricultural University, has joined the Farming Help charities for a full time four month placement with the aim to learn more about working in the farming charity sector.

First helping Addington Fund for a full three months, then moving on to work with The Farming Community Network for a month in August, Mhairi will be taking on numerous tasks and blogging her time with the charities for more insight of what she learns along the way.

Here’s what you need to know about Mhairi…

“Hello, my name is Mhairi Lochhead. I am from Wokingham, Berkshire, but currently living in Cirencester, Gloucestershire where I am a second-year undergraduate student studying BSc (Hons) Applied Farm Management at The Royal Agricultural University.

Whilst growing up in Bristol, I have strong farming roots on both sides of my family, specifically dairy farming. My mother's side of the family is based in Bally Money, Northern Ireland and my father’s side is based in Dumfries, Scotland, with the family farm (Kedar Brown Swiss) currently having the largest herd of pedigree Brown Swiss in Britain. This meant that all of my family holidays were spent on both family farms.

As I grew up and started to develop a real interest in agriculture through a level 2 and level 3 diploma in agriculture, I started to analyse the environment around me. Noticing more and more the stress and mental toll farming took on the loved ones around me.

This is why I have chosen Addington Fund and The Farming Community Network to carry out my placement with as I have a real interest in how members of the agricultural community can be helped and supported through difficult times.

When working for the Farming Help charities, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of how the agricultural community is supported, whilst carrying out networking within the sector to further understand my knowledge. I also hope to gain insight which will help me when constructing my dissertation in third year. I am aiming to conduct my dissertation on the impact mental health has on the agricultural sector, so having a brief insight to how the Addington Fund and FCN works and manages sensitive cases, will be extremely helpful.”

We very much look forward to Mhairi joining us from May onwards. Thank you to The Prince’s Countryside Fund for funding this venture.