I'M no superwoman, says Liz Pursey, chairman of Herefordshire NFU. But in combining her political role with working on her poultry unit and being a mother she certainly comes close.

When I interviewed Liz, the telephone just didn't stop ringing. The fax kept spilling out NFU paperwork and there was a huge pile of paperwork ready for reading.

She says three days and two evenings a week are taken up with her NFU work and there is a never-ending spiral of paperwork to get through. But she also has to cope with the constant demands of her 12-year-old daughter for lifts to play hockey matches and her two sons at university whom she has to support with their studies. And the week I met her, she had also been called up for jury service, even though she was discharged after two days.

"But I do have a cleaner two days a week who also helps with the washing and ironing," she jokes. "That just leaves me the cooking which I enjoy."

Her refuge from this busy life is keeping a check on her poultry units at the 600-acre Trevase Farm, near Ross-on-Wye.

Often labelled as the 'chicken woman', Liz admits to loving her work with the chickens. The farm produces 1.5 million broiler chickens for the supermarket trade, mainly selling to Asda. "I love the peace and quiet in the chicken unit. It really is my baby," Liz says.

bovine tb

With husband Roger, to whom she has been married for 21 years, they also keep 170 pedigree Holstein dairy cows on the farm which they bought in 1996. It was the problem of bovine TB that first led to Liz's involvement with the NFU.

In 1997, Liz was asked to meet Elliot Morley to give him a woman's view of a TB breakdown on the farm and it is an issue she has been campaigning over ever since.

Liz sees her role on the NFU as another way for a farmer's wife to support the industry of farming. An increasing number of women are taking leading roles in the organisation and Liz believes the numbers will increase as fewer farmers would be able to afford the extra employees needed to cover for NFU absences. At present there are about five other women in the position of county chairman throughout the country.

"As the job has evolved the men haven't got time to devote to the NFU work which is unpaid. I felt I could make a difference by taking this role," Liz says.

Her rise to Herefordshire county chairman was swift and, she admits, a little unexpected. "I had never ever been a commodity chairman before but was vice-chairman last year," she admitted.

The daughter of a dairy farmer from Gloucestershire, Liz studied at Rodbaston College in Staffordshire to be a farm secretary and this attention to detail has stood her in good stead.

But, despite thoroughly enjoying the position, she says one year in the top office will probably be enough.

However, she has caught the political bug and still wants to be involved in the NFU but in a more specialised role.

"At the moment I am a Jack of all Trades but I would prefer to be master of one. I would like to go on in a position more on the animal side, be it poultry or dairy, and be able to specialise."

In the meantime her busy year as chairman continues with a visit to Brussels planned at the end of June to see EU ministers. "We are going to lobby them so that we can affect policy before it becomes legislation rather than having to react to it as we do at the moment. We have got to get ahead of the game and be involved in making the rules."

She is planning to open her farm for an environment day in July and will be inviting workers from various agencies connected with funding and making legislation. "I want them to see at first hand the problems farmers have to cope with such as disposing of waste, NVZs and burial so they are more aware when making their decisions," Liz says.

Of her NFU role, Liz admits she finds the amount of talking a little frustrating. "I want to be straight talking and get down to the main issues. Everyone is talking about initiatives but I want to see something concrete, " she said.

She feels the NFU's main aim is to shorten the food chain to help the industry. "Farmers are good mainline food producers but they are not salesmen and do not want to be," she said. "Farmers have got to be prepared to engage a person and pay them a good salary to take the job further on, especially on the marketing side."

For the future, however, Liz fears for farming which, she feels, has a huge image problem. "Youngsters just do not want to come into farming, not because of the pay but what they perceive as a lack of future for the industry. We need to be able to change that image," Liz added.

Life is not all work and no play for Liz, however. The NFU has a fairly busy social life and she also loves travelling, having just come back from a two-week holiday in the United States. "It was sheer bliss to have two weeks away and forget all the paperwork," she said. "However, it was waiting for me when I got back!"

She has little time for other hobbies but joked that she had thought about taking up golf.

"I've been warned it is addictive and I would be out of the house even more than I am now so perhaps my husband wouldn't think it was such a good idea," she added.