Making ‘moo’ves on Muddy Matches

How farming’s next generation of young, female faces is bringing a new image to Muddy Matches in the search to unearth Mr Right.

New Year, new surge of sign ups on Muddy Matches from the new era of female farmers.

Muddy Matches are widely trusted and recognised as the original home of farmer dating in the UK; and an impressive 42% of the rural romantics currently active on the website have expressed more than a fleeting interest in farming.

It’s the new year spike in young, female farmers signing up to the UK’s number one country life dating experience that has really caught the eye as Muddy Matches ploughs on towards its ½ millionth member.

This surge brings a different image to Muddy Matches; one that would be worthy of any agricultural college glossy brochure but also one that may not necessarily fulfil the ‘chocolate box’ vision of those on the outer fringes of the muddy scale.

Take Alexandra, 25 for instance; the latest to jump in with both muddy boots in search of her ‘needle in a haystack’.

At first glance, her keenly clicked profile displays Instagram-ready tangled white-blonde locks that you’d more closely associate with surfing types.

As first impressions go, you can’t help but wonder why Alexandra is here when her more than fair share of sun-kissed toned attention must await in the wave-drenched night spots of Newquay.

Then the penny drops.

Her bio makes reference to being knee deep in wellies, full time on a farm in Leicestershire; 80% muddy with horses, chickens and dogs for company. The selfie with a cow, an additional photo, removes all doubt.

Alexandra is, in fact, one of the nation’s hard grafters on one of the 14,500+ dairy farms that dot Britain’s green and pleasant lands. As a dairy farmer she plays her part in serving the 1.8 million cows who deliver the creme.

No beach bum here.
That’s the beauty of Muddy Matches – first impressions don’t always tell the whole story.

“I saw Muddy Matches mentioned on one of the farming forums and I joined to see what all the fuss was about.” Alexandra tells us. “I have tried other dating sites in the past with no luck; it’s hard to meet someone with the same sort of interests.”

“Day to day life is busy as I live and work onsite at the farm and I also have dogs and my horses that I keep on separate land.”

But she confesses that there is space in her schedule for some rural romance – as long as any significant other understands her lifestyle. “I’d love a relationship with someone who would like to get stuck in and enjoys the outdoor lifestyle so not too much adaptation would be needed” she adds.

“It’s really important that a potential date understands that the animals are my priority all the time and I work long hours during calving and carrying out night checks. The job isn’t a 9 til’ 5; you finish when the job is done.

“I’ve come back from a dinner on a weekend before and ended up calving a cow still in my heels in the shed!

Alexandra is keen to point out that she isn’t all work and no play though. “On the other hand, I’d like to meet someone that also understands time off from the farm is just as important for me; that I need to get out and enjoy myself.”

Her Instagram, though 90% farm related and a hotbed of animal selfies, does back up her desire to strike a decent work life balance. After all, this 24-year-old ‘still needs to live a life’.

She is not alone. Alexandra is one of a horde of female farmers, aged 25 and under, who have switched to Muddy Matches in recent weeks, attracted by a potential muddy matching on likeminded-ness, shared interests and lifestyle; something rarely found on the ‘pile them high’ apps.

There’s 22-year-old Poppy who lists chicken keeping, sheep herding, course riding and boxset binging as her life preferences – in that order. She’s single and ready to mingle – until the cows come home.

Add Millie to the mix; 21 and “a fun loving country girl”, family farm reared with a passion for cocktails. Millie says a shared love of shooting, farming and horses as a ‘bonus’ in any partner.

Then there’s Tessa, 100% muddy from Pembrokeshire who’s eager to “explore as much of the other side of life as possible around the constraints of farming. It’s a common pattern in profiles – and it shows no sign of relenting.

Up pops Yaz on advanced search; 20, as blonde as you like, and keen to find ‘the one’ who is also happy to help out on her arable farm.

Alexandra, Poppy, Millie, Tessa, Yaz and the likes are, in all sense and purpose, the perfect unfiltered faces for Muddy Matches. They bring the young, fresh from the field angle to country life online dating.

They are part of a generation in which 40% of all new relationships last year started out online. There’s no stigma here.
However, they are also not the weather beaten, thick skinned farmer often anticipated, or even expected, at Muddy Matches.

Muddy boots – yes, but as stereotypical and twee as it sounds, there’s not an inch of harris tweed or partridge feathered cap in sight here. And it’s certainly not a hotbed of cowboy hats and Daisy Duke-inspired denim shorts that social media will plant into some mindsets.

Get past that and you will find genuine country girls who have proper muddy day jobs but with an image that will make you look twice.