Amanda Watson
NFU Livestock board National AppointeeAmanda grew up on an upland farm in the Duram, and now farms with her partner on his family farm in North Yorkshire where they finish cattle (both clean and overage) and store sheep and have a lambing flock.
Amanda鈥檚 also works at Woodheads Bros (Morrisons) as Livestock Buyer/Technical Livestock Specialist.
This has given her great knowledge of processing cattle, lambs and pigs alongside providing her with a strong understanding of the customer requirements and animal welfare throughout this processing.
Amanda manages the Morrisons Integrated Dairy Beef Scheme 鈥淓lite Beef鈥� and the Morrisons Farming 鈥淣ext Generation鈥�.
Amanda feels passionate about upland farming and can relate to challenges faced by many sheep farmers on common and, due to her family owning grazing rights and now being the only remaining farm on a 500-acre moor exercising these.
Whilst she accepts the uplands have an important role to play in helping to achieve biodiversity and other environmental goals, she feels the stratified sheep system in the UK still plays a vital role for farming and rural communities.
Sheep will continue to be important within these areas and she is passionate about seeing sustainable production that can achieve both food production and environmental benefits without destocking.