A SILSDEN woman has been named Young Farmer the Year thanks to her dedication to both farming and volunteering.

Georgina Fort, an award-winning sheep and cattle farmer, is already vice-chairman of the Yorkshire Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs (YFYFC).

The 29-year-old was this month named Young Farmer of the Year in the Yorkshire Post’s 2018 Rural Awards.

It was a combination of her passion for her farm and her willingness to give up her time to help others with her voluntary work with the young farmers, that caught the judges’ eye in the compettion.

Georgina farms a herd of 250 Silmoor Holsteins at Silsden with her father and sister, and operates her own sheep enterprise on the same farm, juggling everything with looking after her baby son Alexander.

Enjoying a rare night out with her husband David at the glittering presentation ceremony at the Pavilions of Harrogate, she said: “I was really thrilled to win the award.

“I’d very much like to use the award to raise awareness of all the good work that YFYFC does and urge people to join and then - if they are already members - to go the extra mile and get more involved.”

Georgina has held a wide range of positions within YFYFC, but recently has spent a lot of time putting systems in place for Yorkshire YFC, such as creating a parent and carer leaflet as well as training guides.

Georgina said: “They might not be the most exciting jobs but once they are done it saves somebody else the bother and lets people get on with other things.

“We had a mastitis problem on the farm and rather than covering the problem up I was determined to get to the bottom of it. We’ve gone from being one of the worst performing herds on our vet’s list to one of the very best.”

Although there are an increasing number of women working within the farming industry, Georgina said people still often asked questions like “Is it your husband’s farm?”.

She added: “People so often presume I’m not a farmer because I’m a woman and it’s important that as an organisation we continue to challenge such attitudes.”

“As well as speaking up for women in farming I’m a big advocate of rural youngsters broadening their horizons and bringing as much experience back to the farm as possible.”

Before returning to work on the family’s 300-acre farm in Silsden, Georgina took a degree in theatre and performance studies, culminating with working on ITV soap opera Emmerdale -- fittingly set in farming country -- as a background artist.