These are the women changing the perception of farming as a man's world.

Yes, they've always played a big role in what is, after all, the ultimate family business - and no farm could survive without every member of the family mucking in.

But the number of female farmers in the UK jumped by nearly 10% between 2010 and 2013 - to more than 25,000 - according to the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Here, six women open up about life on the farm.

Abi Reader

Abi Reader, with some of the 180-strong dairy herd she manages

Abi Reader was Wales Woman Farmer of the Year in 2016. She is a partner in the family farm, along with her father and uncle.

The farm comprises 650 acres near Wenvoe in the Vale of Glamorgan, with the main enterprise being the 180-strong dairy herd which Abi manages.

“Women have always been absolutely critical in farming, they just probably haven’t been noticed so much outside farming circles,” she says.

“Even just the hallowed farmer’s wife is so important, because there’s nothing more important than coming into the house and having a meal ready for you if you had a long day.

“There are also errands that are run, the support that’s given if you’re moving stock or if there’s a disaster on the farm. Quite often the emotional support as well. There’s a lot of turmoil in farming and even that role in itself is important.”

She was never encouraged to go into farming but chose to go to agricultural college.

“The day I got there I felt that I’d come home. I knew that was everything I wanted.”

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After a degree in agriculture and a postgraduate degree in farm management, all she wanted to do was return to the family farm.

“I have never felt any different for being female in farming than anyone else, I’ve always been completely accepted in the farming community, I was always my father’s daughter.

“Eventually as my role changed on the farm and my responsibilities went up it was: this is Abi Reader and she’s a farmer.”

One thing that has changed, she says, is the way in which women are increasingly seen as equal partners with their husbands, or sometimes as leading the business.

“There are lots of businesses where you go where it’s very clear that someone who was the daughter is in charge and making the decisions. Often they’ve married someone who has no interest in farming so it’s them who’s at the top.”

She also sees a lot of women who are working outside the farm to support the business.

“We talk a lot about diversification, but there are a lot of farming families where the female role model in that family is going out doing another job, and it’s a very important part of bringing the income in.”

Rachel Saunders

Rachel Saunders farms near Bonvilston in the Vale of Glamorgan and works for the Farmers’ Union of Wales as county executive officer for Glamorgan.

Rachel Saunders and her husband have 100 suckler cows and 250 ewes at their farm near Bonvilston in the Vale of Glamorgan.

She also works for the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) as county executive officer for Glamorgan.

“I haven’t a farming background at all. My husband, who I knew from school, decided he wanted to set up a farm at about the time that we started seeing each other 11 years ago.

“I used to be a solicitor, I used to read the tenancies through to him. I do a lot of the paperwork, and keep the house running - we have two kids.”

She didn’t mind giving up her career as a solicitor to join her husband on the farm.

“To be honest it was something I’d fallen out of love with anyway, the way it was changing. I couldn’t see myself doing it for the next 40 years.

“My husband saw the advert for this job in the market report. It seemed brilliant, I would still be in Cowbridge, and I would be more of a help for him doing this sort of job.”

Her work at the FUW can involve anything from helping farmers fill out subsidy forms to dealing with tenancy and right of way issues. Every day in her work she sees how the role of women in farming is changing.

“The stereotypical view of the farmers’ wife being at home, especially in south Wales, is gone. Most of the farmers’ wives work, not just on the farm, sometimes with their own business.

“They’re still in agriculture but they’ve diversified into something else to help support the farm and do something for themselves as well. We couldn’t have the farm without me working. My husband’s doing well but my income is a steady income and his fluctuates, especially with Brexit and not knowing what’s going to happen.

“But I think women want to do more for themselves as well nowadays.”

Victoria Shervington-Jones

Victoria Shervington-Jones from St Brides, near Newport, gets the NFU Wales Woman Farmer of the year award at the Royal Welsh Show

Victoria Shervington-Jones runs a free range egg business at her farm at St Brides, Newport. The farm has 39,500 laying hens, and she supplies eggs to Tesco and to 700 shops from Bridgend to Bristol.

The farm belongs to Victoria’s parents, but when her father died of motor neurone disease seven years ago she took over the running of it. Her husband helps out but he has his own landscaping business. She has two daughters, aged four and three.

“I was born into farming. It may not be what I would have chosen to do but I love it now. It’s been a steep learning curve for me and my mum. We were always out on the farm, milking cows and whatever, but now we’re running it.

"I was the eldest of two, and it was never a question that I wouldn’t come back and run the farm at some point.

“There was never a question that because I was a girl I wouldn’t be involved with it, and the same with my girls.”

She feels that women have a higher profile as farmers than they used to.

“There are a lot more stronger women in farming now... They’re definitely making more of an impression and being accepted in male roles. There’s nothing that us women can’t do now.”

She plans to keep growing the business, perhaps adding another laying shed and getting into more suppliers.

In July she was announced as Wales Woman Farmer of the Year at the Royal Welsh Show by NFU Cymru.

As Wales Woman Farmer of the Year she spends time visiting schools and going to events to talk about farming.

“We try to teach children where the chicken and the egg come from,” she said.

Rachel Madeley Davies

Rachel Madeley Davies, farmer and agricultural consultant

Rachel Madeley Davies has a beef and sheep farm with her husband on 1,200 acres near Bala, in the Snowdonia National Park. They have 1,000 ewes and 40 suckler cows.

She also works from home as an agricultural consultant.

“It’s just the two of us so we’re both very hands-on. My husband works full time on the farming, I work from home and plug the gaps. It’s very much a partnership. There used to be four people working on this farm 20 years ago and now it’s just the two of us.

“I probably fulfil some of the traditional roles still like cooking meals, but that’s through choice, not because I feel I have to do. I see this as any other job. Something I feel strongly about is that we play an equal role.”

There’s no such thing as a typical day on a farm, but they’re often long days, especially in lambing season.

“It’s usually taking the children off to child minder or school, then it’s checking the lambing sheds. It’s long days and hard work, sometimes it feels like little reward, but we try to split the jobs.

“Usually what will happen is one of us will do an early shift and the other a later one. I’m fortunate I can work as well, so I can plan my diary around the farm diary. I’m interested in the strategic, policy side of farming as well, not just the day to day, and I’m involved in that as well.

“The strategic side of our business, where we invest, is always a joint decision. It has to be, it’s my livelihood as well as his and two brains are usually better than one.”

Teleri Fielden

Teleri Fielden

Teleri Fielden is spending a year working as a farm manager on the 600-acre Llyndy Isaf farm in Snowdonia after being awarded the Llyndy Isaf scholarship at this year's Royal Welsh Show.

Her parents are not farmers but her grandfather farmed at Meifod near Welshpool, and she has wanted to work on a farm since she was four.

“Two years ago I was out in France and I worked and studied on a mixed research farm there. I think people thought that would put me off farming – it was quite a tough place to work – but I absolutely loved it.”

At Llyndy Isaf she has a mentor and the assistance of the National Trust farm next door.

With no chance of inheriting a farm and no big pot of cash she has to be creative in how she achieves her dream of becoming a farmer.

“I think realistically I’d like to aim for a tenancy. I’m not going to be able to buy a farm so that’s going to be my only way in. But I’ll probably need to work as well to finance it.

“Diversification is almost standard for farming now. I know a lot of people who work as well as farm at home, which is quite tough, to split yourself between those two quite big demands.

“For someone like me, it’s looking at ways to do it slightly differently, looking at added value, doing B&Bs, and financing it like that.”

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She added: “I think a lot of my friends and family think I’m slightly mad. For me it ties in everything I’m really interested in and always have been passionate about. I love the practical side of farming, but also it’s really interesting how it ties in so many important issues around food security, conservation, climate change.

“And I’ve always enjoyed working with animals. But I’m under no illusions about how tough it will be, physically, financially, the lot.

“I’m really lucky I’ve got a lot of family support. You have to have a lot of people around you who are there for you.”

Kath Shaw

Kath Shaw, right, shows Ugandan fair trade farmer Nimrod Wambette around her farm

Kath Shaw runs a deer farm near Builth Wells which she owns with her mother. The farm runs to 80 acres and they have a breeding herd of 45 hinds.

She also works part-time in administration for the FUW.

She was born just outside London where her parents worked as a teacher and a telecommunications engineer. She worked in the deer industry after taking a HND in agriculture, and then decided to set up the farm with her parents more than 15 years ago.

“It’s been a learning curve. I won’t say there haven’t been mistakes, but we’re learning as we go along. People have been very welcoming. Once you build up that personal relationship they’re more willing to help.

“It’s a niche market but it’s growing. There are about 350 deer farms in the country but a lot of them have a local market or they have a small meat round.”

They sell all their deer to the Welsh Venison Centre in Bwlch, between Brecon and Crickhowell.

“There’s only a certain season you can sell in when they’re ready. You’re not subject to market fluctuations but you are subject to whims of consumers. I think with mechanisation it’s a lot easier. Yes there is some heavy lifting but there are contractors who do that. I don’t consider myself any weaker or stronger or better, it’s more attitude.

“We went to a local machinery show when we first moved here and no-one spoke to us because they assumed we’d come with a man. But once you build up relationships with the local suppliers they accept you for who you are. It’s more the older generation, the people my age or younger are quite accepting, they’ve grown up seeing their parents taking a more active role.”