The Queen of the Land says she finds older people most hard to convince of her abilities as a young farmer.
Karen Elliffe from Ballinagore in County Westmeath has been commenting on The Midlands Today Show after a new report showed women provide one third of all hours worked on Irish farms and that EU policy must tackle barriers to finance, inheritance and ownership for women.
“When I say I’m farming fulltime, a lot of people drop their head to one side [as if to ask] is that all you could manage to do. I have to justify it to people and it’s primarily the older generation who wonder if you’d be firm enough, as capable with machinery or livestock. I find I have to talk myself up a lot when asked about farming.”
Ms Elliffe works with her father on the family farm but is determined to pay her way, having secured finance for her own herd. “I wanted to start from scratch. I will take over the family farm eventually but I wanted to start the hard way, to go in at the deep end.”
“It was a lady I was dealing with in the bank and she came from a farming background herself. She was kind of in admiration of my ambition to farm myself”
When asked about incentives to entice more women to farm, Ms Elliffe didn’t favour gender-specific financial arrangements. “I would love to encourage as many people of any gender into farming because it’s needed in the country. Women are well able to stand up for ourselves and hold our own and I wouldn’t like men to say a woman is only in it for the added bonuses.”
Her short term ambition is to her herd at a slow and steady pace, before eventually taking over the family farm.
Can you contribute to the discussion on women in farming? Email: midlandstoday@midlandsradio.fm
