My Country Living: 'Technically I'm farming on two continents at the moment'

My role is office manager of the Agricultural Science Association (ASA), a voluntary organisation and the professional body for graduates in agricultural, horticultural, forestry, environmental and food science.

I grew up on a mixed farm – sucklers and a bit of tillage – in Canada. There are about 80ac there, so it was always a part-time thing for my parents and it kept us out of trouble. It’s like Ireland, it’s hard to make a living off of 80ac, especially with beef cattle. My sister still runs it today and I still have a few cows there.

They’re purebred Angus, so technically I’m farming on two continents at the moment. I’m from a place called Oakwood, which is about an hour and a half from downtown Toronto. You would avoid Toronto like the plague unless you had to go to the airport.

Work

I studied agriculture with the University of Guelph, worked on a dairy farm for a year and then went back to college and studied event management. I wanted to do something more than just working on somebody else’s farm. Going home to take over our farm wasn’t really an option at the time. I was always interested in event planning, so I decided to avoid the real world for a little while and go back to school.

I ended up going back dairy farming for someone else. I was working for a guy who was into communications, agriculture and sharing the positive image of agriculture. This was back in 2005. He knew I had an interest in events and he was awarded contracts, which we did together.

I milked part time and then I went to trade shows and set up displays for the chicken farmers of Ontario and some other commodity groups. So I would actually do outreach and communications in agriculture.

I did that for a couple of years. I loved it so much that I decided I wanted to get away from farming and started working for the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto for one of their fairs. From there I went to Calgary. I really needed a change and started working for Canadian Angus.

I was there for 10 and a half years. After jumping around a little bit I found somewhere that stuck. I was in Calgary for about eight of those years working in head office. I started out in registry, doing data entry and customer service. Then I ended up managing the tag programme there, which is a national ID programme identifying Angus genetics and then working into business development at the end of that, looking after all of eastern Canada.

Nuffield

I was a 2014 Nuffield scholar, an independent organisation that promotes excellence by developing and supporting individuals with leadership potential in agriculture. A friend of mine told me about it. I was like: “You mean I get to travel around the world and talk about cows? This is perfect, sign me up.”

So I went for it and got it the first year I applied. I looked at traceability in beef production from a consumer attribute side of things and visited China, Hong Kong, Ireland, UK, France, Australia and South America.

It was when I was travelling with Nuffield, interacting with primary producers again that I realised how much I missed the farming side of it. Even though I was working in the industry, I missed actually going out and looking after the livestock. That’s when I figured out I wanted to get back in farming again, even part time.

After eight years with Canadian Angus, the opportunity came up for me to go back to the farm in Ontario. I told my boss I wanted to move back home, take over the farm and that I would like to keep the job if I could. He agreed to it and that is how I ended up back farming and working.

Ireland

So all was going well, I was back at home on the farm, then things changed and I ended up getting married to an Irish dairy farmer and moving over here in 2017.

I started in ASA in March 2018 when I covered a maternity leave. The lady came back, I went home, calved out cows for a few months and then she ended up moving jobs, so I was called and asked back. I have been here again since April 2019.

My day-to-day activities can vary greatly depending on the day. As being the only employee I look after everything from paying the bills and working with the accountants, to membership queries and membership renewals, to event planning and social media.

The commute to Dublin is not the most positive aspect of what I do but it has to be done. I’m just happy I’m not in the city centre.

I couldn’t have asked for anything better than the ASA, given that the organisation works with so many people across the industry and country. It really has allowed me to expand my network and meet a lot of people.

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