The blind farmer: ‘It’s all I ever wanted to do. Now I can help others do it’

theguardian.com:

‘All I’ve ever wanted in life is to be a farmer,’ says Mike Duxbury, who lost his sight at the age of six through infantile glaucoma. Having grown up on the family farm, he was determined not to let the loss of his sight stop him chasing the only career he ever wanted.

In the late 1980s, Duxbury applied to every agricultural college in the country before being accepted by just one – Warwickshire College of Agriculture. He qualified as an animal nutritionist and graduated in 1990 with a degree in agricultural business management.

Mike Duxbury drives a customised golf buggy around the farm

“Even back then, prejudice was very high, but I learned at college to do the things I wanted to do. They gave me every opportunity; they never put up a barrier.”

Today, Duxbury and his partner Ness Shillito have established one of the UK’s first working farms dedicated to training people with disabilities for a career in agriculture. With 10 pigs, 10 sheep, four goats and 50 egg-laying birds, Inclusive Farm near Flitwick in Bedfordshire aims to give students the full range of skills expected on any British farm. It is now guiding disabled students from Milton Keynes College towards animal care qualifications.

“We are a working farm, and what students see and what students do is part of that working farm,” Duxbury says. “They learn that animals need to be kept clean, fed and watered. I don’t do anything with the students that a working farm wouldn’t do on a daily basis.”

For almost a decade after qualifying, Duxbury worked as a livestock specialist and a stud person for national farming companies. He then switched careers to work in telecoms. The money was good but the work was only a “means to an end”, so he kept on farming when he could.

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