ALTHOUGH FOUR women made it to the finals of Macra na Feirme’s FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition held last night in Gorey, Co Wexford, it was one of the 21 young farming men who took the title.
At one stage it looked like Cork’s Aoife Ladd (19) from Castletownroche, Caroline O’Neill (27) from Bandon, Elaine Dempsey (24) representing her native Cavan, or Claire Ryan (33) from Castlepollard might have taken the top prize. Instead, the award went to Kevin Heavin (34), who runs a mixed dairy and beef farm in Ferbane, Co Offaly.
The four represented the highest number of women to reach the final in the 13 years of the competition, run by Macra na Feirme in conjunction with the Irish Farmers’ Association. Macra na Feirme president Alan Jagoe said the fact they had made it so far in the competition reflected the increase in the number of women making a successful living from the land.
He said it was great to see women getting involved and becoming active farmers in what was predominantly a male-orientated business.
However, the most recent Central Statistics Office census of agriculture, in 2000, established that women own 10 per cent of Irish farms and of these 54 per cent work full time on those farms.
According to Teagasc researcher Dr Aine Macken-Walsh, the figures showed 56 per cent of the farms were acquired from marital transfers from a spouse and 27 per cent were inherited from parents, while 10 per cent were purchased.
Only 3 per cent of farms jointly owned by husbands and wives were held in legal partnership.