Woman to milk 10,000 cows in 10 days

A woman is aiming to milk 10,000 cows in 10 days while travelling the length of the country to raise money for charity.

Marie Stephenson, 45, an agricultural professional from Warton, Lancaster, will set off from Bodmin in Devon on 3 August, and head north towards Kilpatrick, Scotland, over the following 10 days.

The one woman, 10 Days, 10,000 Milking Cows challenge will be used to support the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) - a charity providing practical and emotional support to farmers across England and Wales.

Stephenson said she wanted to raise awareness for mental wellbeing and the physical demands of farming, and described the challenge as coming from "a very personal place".

Stephenson, who milked professionally at a dairy farm for just over a year after university, explained she would be visiting a range of different parlours throughout the challenge.

She said she would be using rotary machinery to milk the cows - sometimes a number of them at the same time.

An average milking herd in the UK is now 174 cows, she said, ranging from 50 cows up to 5,000.

The average milking time is three hours, depending on the size of the parlour, normally starting in the morning at about 04.30 and again in the evening at 16:00 BST, she continued.

"At some rotary parlours you can have 72 cows being milked at a time," she said.

"There is somebody going to be stood there just in case like I get shoulder cramps or anything of course not because I don't milk every day."

"After a series of losses close to my family and local farming community, I saw the impact left behind on families, schools and whole communities," said Stephenson.

"Mental health in agriculture is starting to impact younger and younger people and so I just felt like I needed to do something about it."

She said farming could be "a lonely, lonely job" so she wanted to raise awareness and "bring some light to the farms I milk at and help open conversations about mental health in farming".

"It was just about doing something that was simple and also challenging," she said.

"So I was sitting in bed and the idea came to me and I said to my husband what about milking 10,000 cows in 10 days from the bottom of the country to the top."

Regional farm networks are already coordinating routes to make sure she reaches the 10,000 milestone, RABI said.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.