Will Roobottom
Cowley Hill Farm,
Cowley Hill
Staffordshire
Coming from a farming background, William Roobottom, alongside his father and grandfather, runs a 223-hectare (550-acre) farm in the heart of Staffordshire.
They farm for hay and haylage to sell to the equine market and, rather than using traditional grass ley mixes, they have developed their own specifically tailored mixes for the equine world, resulting in perfect products for their market.
Alongside this, William has recently developed a pedigree flock of Lleyn sheep growing to a head of 160 ewes.
The flock is now closed and William breeds all his own replacements as he looks to grow numbers.
The key aim of the flock is to improve efficiency and productivity using modern technologies, such as recording daily liveweight gain using EID, Signet recording and analysing these sources to choose replacements from.
Always looking to develop the farm business, William started his YouTube channel ‘Cowley Hill Farm with Will’ and shares his working life on social media. William’s aim is to educate and inspire the next generation, highlighting the positives of agriculture and what career opportunities are available.
Uploading two videos a week to his YouTube channel and updating his social media daily has led to a very engaged audience.
William understands his audience and is very aware video content has had a surge in views over the last few years on social media platforms.
Using this to his advantage and a work placement at a marketing agency, William picked up the skills, and also through a lot of self-tuition, creates these videos himself. He has also produced YouTube Q&A sessions in which a worldwide audience engaged from people in the US, New Zealand, Slovakia and more.
His dedication to not only creating this content, but also engaging with his audience and keeping them up to date with everything on-farm, is palpable.