During Sunday's (16 August) edition of BBC's Countryfile, presenter Adam Henson visited 27-year-old farmer Georgia Hunter in Cumbria, where she manages a herd of goats alongside her father, Frank. The visit took an emotional turn as Georgia candidly discussed the "dark times" she experienced with her mental health, leaving Henson visibly taken aback.
Family farm's switch to goats
The family switched to goat farming after a particularly difficult lambing season. Georgia explained: "We were having quite a hard lambing time, weren't we? The mothers didn't really have any milk. The lambs didn't have any energy, did they? And they were Texel crosses, so they were meant to be milky, but they turned out they weren't very milky. So, it was just a bit of a crisis, really, wasn't it?"
Frank added: "The goat milk was better quality than the milk replacers that we could find. They were bright, they were bouncing, just the same as the rest of the flock that was suckling their mothers." The pair were won over by the goats and built up a complete herd. After comparing returns from sheep and goats, Frank began to doubt the value of sheep farming, leading him to reduce the flock from 500 to just 20 sheep and switch to supplying goat's milk to nearby cheese makers.
Georgia's mental health struggles
Georgia started working on the family farm at age 18, stepping up when her father became ill. She shared: "Dad became quite ill. And, obviously there's that worry of thinking, 'Oh, hell, what's going to happen without him?' So, I think I stepped up and helped when [he] was recovering."
During the episode, she spoke openly about her mental health: "I had a bit of a mental breakdown really badly, and woke up with a bit of a speech problem, I had a bit of a stutter. I really, really struggled in social events in just day-to-day speaking." She overcame these challenges through "a lot of therapy", help from doctors, and backing from Young Farmers, adding: "If I didn't have that, I don't really know where I'd be."
Another 'make or break' moment
The family faced another crisis when their cheese-making customers stopped buying milk. Frank described: "We were selling milk to the cheesemakers around and about. But they either shut their doors or said, 'Oh, I'm not doing any more.'" He continued: "It came after one cheesemaker had said, 'We don't want your milk tomorrow.' There was 1,000 litres of milk sat there. And what do you do with that?" prompting a visibly taken aback Adam to respond: "Crikey."
Countryfile is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
