It took 17 years and a pandemic to unlock Mary Raymond’s hunger to farm and it has since become an unstoppable force.

In the two years since that epiphany, Mary has been frantically making up for lost time, seizing every opportunity on and off the farm to learn more about the industry she was born into.

She is one year into a degree in agriculture management at Reading University, is an NFU Cymru Student and Young Farmer Ambassador and is immersed in the day-to-day job of producing milk, potatoes, cereals and lamb in Pembrokeshire with three generations of her family.

At 19, Mary admits she is a woman in a hurry: “I want to know all there is to know about farming, to try my hand at everything.’’

Until March 2020 and the first Covid-19 lockdown, her life was moving in an entirely different direction. She was studying business at Pembrokeshire College, unsure about her career path but contemplating nursing or midwifery as possible options.

Finding herself at home at Trenewydd, Croesgoch, for the lockdown, her father, Paul, enlisted her help on the farm, initially irrigating potatoes.

“I spent a lot of time with dad, doing jobs on the farm, and learned how to milk. That’s how it all started. I realised at that point that all I wanted to do was to farm.’’

Mary grew up at Trenewydd in a county where her family has been farming for generations.

The business now covers 3,510 acres and employs 18 full time staff.

With several enterprises across the business, there is no shortage of opportunities for Mary to learn new skills and no job she doesn’t want to try her hand at – she has now added artificial insemination to her skillset after training this summer.

She enjoys every job on the farm but working with sheep probably gets top spot.

The family fattens store lambs that are bought from Sennybridge market from November to January. But keen to also gain experience of lambing, Mary got a job helping local sheep farmer, Huw Williams, to lamb his 1600 breeding ewes.

“Lambing is my favourite season and I am very grateful to Huw for everything he has taught me about sheep.’’

Mary is active on Instagram and Twitter and has seen an increase in followers on those platforms since she started using them to inform people about agriculture.

“Once I explain things to people they generally listen and understand, my Instagram page has become a hub of information.’’

She also uses her Twitter account to campaign on behalf of the industry, more so since she became involved in farming politics in her role as NFU Cymru Student and Young Farmer Ambassador.

She has big shoes to fill in that public-facing role – her grandfather, Meurig, served as NFU president for four years – but she is undaunted by that.

Meurig, she says, has been a “massive inspiration’’.

“I have grown up with Grandad having a prominent role in farming politics, he has been a role model for me.

“I don’t think he is the reason for some of the things I have achieved but he has been a great help in making me aware of opportunities, encouraging me to have a go.’’

Her mother, Claire, an occupational therapist, is another of her role models, instilling in her a work ethic and the attitude that a woman can be a man’s equal in the male-dominated industry of agriculture.

Mary reckons the time will come soon when a woman farmer is less of a novelty.

“When I go to mart with Grandad and Dad, people will speak to them first because they are the known people, not because they are ignoring me. I haven’t once experienced someone dismissing me because I am a woman.

“We are lucky to have people like Minette Batters and Abi Reader showing the world what women can achieve in agriculture.’’