Farmer Writes: farming in a foreign tongue

I kept an eye out on the updates from the latest Irish trade mission to China and it made me reminisce.

Fourteen years ago, I found myself in the middle of France as part of my college work experience. I figured I might only get one chance at getting away from the farm and I fancied a bit of travel so off I went.

The farm, in Centre, consisted of a large herd of Charolais cattle alongside tillage.

Secondary school French would only get me so far, so I had to learn a whole new vocabulary before I went. For those few weeks the electric fence, heifers and trailer were referred to as ‘‘la clôture électrique’’, ‘‘les génisses’’ and ‘‘la remorque’’. There wasn’t much translation needed when I was told to be careful of ‘‘des serpents’’.

There were parts of those few weeks that I loved and, equally, there were elements I struggled with.

I got on fine with the people, the food was exceptional and the cattle on the farm were impressive. They were able to understand my French even with a hint of west Cork to it.

While it was enjoyable to experience a different culture, I struggled a bit with the attitude and the workload. The farmer I worked for and his family and neighbours all felt farming was a way of life, not a business. That was a bit of a shock. The other challenge was the work.

After completing the morning jobs around the yard, I set off in an old Citroen Ax car that required the choke to be left pulled out for most of the time the car was running, to check the heifers and cows to see if any were bulling.

My companion on these trips was an overenthusiastic border collie called Roxanne. I ended up with an aversion to the Police song of the same name after having to call the dog every day.

I wasn’t used to the amount of down time between jobs. Stopping for an hour or two after lunch was unheard of at home, yet it was the standard where I was in France. Back then, most of my work on the home farm was on the pig unit as well as the cattle work. It was constant going.

So how did a Chinese trade mission get me thinking about France? To confuse you a bit more, Brexit is the reason. If it ever comes to fruition and market access is tougher to our nearest and culturally most similar market, then we need to think differently on how we prepare for the future.

One suggestion would be for co-ops or agribusinesses representing farmers to look at giving business and language scholarships to students from a farming background within their catchments. We don’t all have to go out and become fluent in Mandarin, Arabic or Spanish. Together with English, they are spoken by over 3bn people worldwide and are within the areas targeted by trade missions in recent years.

How valuable would it be to have locals tell their own stories without the coldness of a translator? There might be concern that the control a marketeer has of the narrative is reduced when they get on farm? While it may be a small margin, you create a positive connection straightaway.

I lasted three weeks instead of 12 in France. I completed my work experience with a progressive dairy farming family in Cork. The lack of business focus made me question the worth of the venture. With hindsight, maybe my host farmer had got some bits right.

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