Do farmers ever really retire? Even the odd one who takes up golf or heads off on month long holidays will still potter around the home farm or may even start up a small enterprise on a few acres on an outfarm. It’s said that a farmer is still a farmer until they are six feet under and I’d believe it.
Many are still staying in the driving seat until in their 70s and beyond. The reasons vary between not having [...]
12% of Ireland’s registered farmers are female. That means that the percentage of women farming registered with a herd number is 12%. Apparently half of that number are widows which suggest the majority of them are over 60. That translates into 6% of Ireland?s farmers being young and female. However, is this really a true reflection on the facts? I’m afraid I don’t have the time [...]
When I was interviewed by Ryan Tubridy last December (shameless name dropping there!) he was teasing that farmers tend to be negative, grumpy and pessimistic. “Not so,” was my reply “They are optimistic, they always see the silver lining but they can never be too positive as they just never know what is around the corner.”
After all, although we don’t get extreme weather here in Ireland, it can happen that sudden flash floods can still damage crops or make a [...]
I first met Catherina of Derrybrack Aubracs on twitter and was struck by her enthusiasm for her beloved Aubrac cattle. It all stemmed from a win of an Aubrac calf some years ago. She is hugely passionate about farming and bodes well for Ireland’s future farmers if many of them are as enthusiastic as Catherina.
It was a dark, blustery and very unsummerlike day when I arrived at Cillin Hill mart for our #farmerettes tweet up. Organised some 2 months ago, the idea came from a couple of tweets and as always with determined and enthusiastic women, the date and venue was decided as the number of female farmers on twitter who wished to [...]
