A sixth-generation farmer, Will Young – aka Farmer Will – has been farming full-time since the age of 17.
“I’m very much an outdoorsy person. Growing up, I didn’t like sitting in a classroom or at a desk. I would help on the farm, and I’d love it,” Will said. After some encouragement from his dad to explore his options outside of farming, Will tried his hand at several different careers, from accounting to catering. “My dad always encouraged my brother and I to go out and get an education. He said, ‘the farm is always going to be here, you don’t need to rush and make a decision about farming full time, it’s a life-long commitment’.”
But when he did try and find a career outside of agriculture, all Will was thinking about was home. “I said, ‘this is so silly, I just want to work on the farm’ so that’s when I came back full time. I got on TikTok about two years ago and I guess that’s where everything started to change.”
TikTok talk begins
After some encouragement from a friend, Will uploaded a Snapchat video to TikTok during lambing season. “It just blew up and since then, I’ve been trying to promote farming.
“It’s more for non-farmers than farmers in the way that I speak, so if you don’t understand farming, you’ll be able to watch the videos and have an idea of what’s going on. Then I went on Love Island, which was really random, and here I am today.”
“Love Island has given me a bigger platform where I can actually talk about real issues within the farming community and industry, which is the most amazing thing.”
Farmer Will
Today is living back on the family farm with girlfriend Jessie Wynter whom Will found love with in the villa.
With almost two million followers on TikTok, Will continues to use the platform to raise awareness about farming, taking this a step further in October of last year with his debut book, ‘For The Love Of Farming’, which he calls “a real pinch me moment”.
“I’ve tried to do it in the way of my TikTok videos, where you don’t need to be a farmer or understand farming to be able to read it,” Will said.
“Although it is educational, it’s done in a very light-hearted, easy manner and that’s what I wanted the book to be because I wasn’t great at English, I did struggle, so even having a book out still surprises me.”
While it’s an easy read, the book also touches on mental health and some of the troubles of the job. “If I write another book, I’d love to go into the issues a lot more,” he said, adding one of the main things that appearing on Love Island has led to is a bigger platform.
“I was back lambing a week after leaving the villa which was really so intense, it felt like I’d never worked in my life,” Will laughed. “It humbled me, it was so tough, but Love Island has given me a bigger platform where I can actually talk about real issues within the farming community and industry, which is the most amazing thing.”
He pointed to issues including sustainable farming, getting farmers a fair price, mental health, and diversification, adding he will continue to use his platform to spark conversations and get people talking.
The future of farming
Will is also passionate about the future of farming and fostering the next generation: “It is so important because farming feeds the world. Not necessarily just the country, it feeds the world. Without farming you wouldn’t survive.”
For the Love of Farming: Farmer Will's Guide to Life in the Fields is out now.
Follow Will on social media:
- @farmer_will_ on instagram
- @farmerwill_ on TikTok
With the average age of a farmer in the UK at 59 and across the world at 60, Will is a keen advocate for change and is eager to get more young people involved in the industry, using his social media presence to help drive awareness of farming, and the agricultural sector more widely, as a career choice.
“There’s such a stereotype around farming but it’s changing so much. You don’t have to be an old man in wellies, you can be young, you can be cool.”
And it’s the younger farmers, Will thinks, who are key to driving change in the industry. “This generation coming through who are being taught different ways of farming, how to be more sustainable and more environmental, this is where the real change is going to happen and if there’s not enough people to push that, then it just won’t.”
“There’s a massive stigma around ‘oh if you’re in agriculture you have to be a farmer’, when you don’t. There are many different routes that you can go down.”
Farmer Will
Will also would love to see agriculture on the curriculum. “I would love to have a real big push and involvement in agriculture being taught in schools. I think it is so important.
“The only reason I work on a farm and I’m in agriculture is because my family farm, and I love it, but if I didn’t come from that sort of background, I probably wouldn’t do it because it wouldn’t have been an option at school and so many people are in that category.
“It’s so important that where our food comes from is taught as a lot of people probably just know that food comes from a supermarket and that’s how it is, but there’s so many different things that go on beforehand.
“Especially as a young kid, knowing where your food comes from and knowing that it’s a career option because agriculture will always be around, it’s probably the most sustainable job. Just knowing it is an option and that there are so many jobs. There’s a massive stigma around ‘oh if you’re in agriculture you have to be a farmer’, when you don’t. There are many different routes that you can go down.”
