Meet the Team: Ursula Taylor

What is your role at Stabiliser Cattle Company?

I’m the Sales Manager here at Stabiliser Cattle Company. My main duties are marketing and selling the Stabiliser breed. This involves working closely with our multipliers, talking to existing customers, and trying to develop new leads and customers. As a result, it is a varied role travelling around the countryside.

How long have you worked there?

I’ve worked for Stabiliser Cattle Company since 2008, after a background in farming and the meat industry. I was the first full time employee. As a business, the core of what we do hasn’t changed over that time – we’re still a cattle breeding company with an emphasis on data as the most important element in getting the breed correct, both technically and more importantly phenotypically. The biggest change has been the staffing. We now employ five people full time and two part time, enabling the business to grow over the past few years.

What is the best part of your job?

I enjoy working with all the breeders we work with and building great relationships with them. I love talking to people, problem solving and helping them build their herd up. It’s all about communication.

What do you love about Stabiliser cattle?

All the attributes of Stabiliser cattle make them what they are and do what they do. That’s what I like about them. I couldn’t sell anything I didn’t believe in, but we have all the data backing up the performance of the cattle. That is why I believe in it and the people we work alongside believe in it – it works for them on their farms.

How long have you worked in the agricultural industry?

I started working on farms in 1979 after I had left school, and then progressed into working in the meat processing industry and then at the Stabiliser Cattle Company, so I’ve worked in the industry for more than 40 years.

What is it like being a woman in the agricultural industry?

In the early years, it was total sex discrimination. In 1979 you could barely get a job if you were a woman, farmers just said they didn’t employ women as they weren’t strong enough. When I did get a job, I felt I had to work twice as hard as the men to prove them wrong, which I did.

Back in those days, it was a lot more physical. There was a lot of manual work to be done. On the first farm I worked on there was no forklift so all the fertiliser had to be unloaded and loaded into the spreader by hand. It was hard work and I can understand why some farmers said it was not for women.

When I worked in an abattoir, things were even worse. That was an entirely male-dominated environment.

Things have slowly changed over the years but would I say we were equal now? Not entirely. Things have improved a lot but we’re not quite there yet.

Are there enough opportunities for women wanting to get into the agricultural industry?

There are now more opportunities for women now in areas like Agri sales and other, associated roles. As an industry, it is much easier to get into compared to when I started in the late 1970s, and that’s a good thing.

What do you think the future of the beef industry in the UK holds?

There has been a beef industry in the UK and there will continue to be one, but it is likely to be in less hands and those who make it work will be the ones who concentrate on producing what the market wants efficiently and profitably, rather than on what they have traditionally done. Therefore Stabilisers have been selected for the traits they have, to produce an animal that fulfils that role.

In the short term, there are some major challenges due to the sky rocketing price of farm inputs. Beef prices are good but are they enough to balance out the extra cost? Probably not as all the extra costs have come suddenly and over a short period of time. Hopefully, when the world settles down a bit, things will get back to some sense of normality.

What makes British beef great?

The rules and regulations that we adhere to in the UK are stricter than most countries which is ensuring the safety and quality of the beef.

To British farmers, animals are more than just commodities. Our farmers generally take great care of their animals and that’s something as a nation we should be proud of and support by buying British.

It’s great to see also that we are starting to make more of an emphasis on eating quality and this needs to continue to make British Beef Great and the Stabiliser fits perfectly into this role.

Tell us something interesting about yourself that most people wouldn’t know.

Because of my early experiences in the industry, the discrimination I faced working on farms and particularly in the meat processing industry, I had to toughen up and do it quickly. As a result, I tend to always tell people the truth, even if it is not what they want to hear, and have acquired a bit of a reputation for being straight talking and tough but this has actually gained me a lot of respect within the industry.

So, people in the industry might be surprised to learn that I’m actually a big softie! I’m the mother to two wonderful dogs, I love cooking, gardening, baking, entertaining, and feeding people. My cakes and Mince pies at Christmas are always popular. I’m a people person as well as a cattle person and working at the Stabiliser Cattle Company gives me the best of both worlds.