I remember Mam saying there was a woman who lived down the road who was a farmer and when I was younger I would have been hopping over the gate when she drove by drawing bales in the summer. Dad is originally from Tipperary and his dad was a farmer, but that’s the closest connection I would have had to farming. Dad moved up to Meath when he was 18 or 19, bought a site, built a house and that was it. We had no land or anything with it.
I remember Mam saying there was a woman who lived down the road who was a farmer and when I was younger I would have been hopping over the gate when she drove by drawing bales in the summer.
Dad is originally from Tipperary and his dad was a farmer, but that’s the closest connection I would have had to farming. Dad moved up to Meath when he was 18 or 19, bought a site, built a house and that was it. We had no land or anything with it.
Aedín Quirke works on a dairy farm in Co Meath.
It wasn’t until I started going out with my boyfriend, Philip, that I got into farming. I started going out with him when I was 18 and he just slowly edged me to driving tractors and that.
I didn’t even know how to drive a car at that stage and now I can get up into a tractor and just happily drive away. He started me on the loading shovel because there are no gears in it. It was also to get used to being up at that height, being in a big machine and knowing my surroundings. He was a great teacher and the patience he had with me was unreal when I’d do something wrong. He always supported me from day one.
College
After I left school, I went to college. It just became a case of follow this path for the time being, so I picked creative digital media in Blanchardstown because I loved animating and drawing. I couldn’t really find anything else that I was actually interested in at the time. At that stage there was no mention of farming in my life other than I lived in the countryside.
Aedín said it took her a year to feel comfortable around cattle.
In June, at the end of my second year of college my dad passed away. I had it in my head that he would have always wanted me to get a good education and finish with a degree. So I followed that through for myself, and to make my dad proud. I knew going into my third year of college that it was not what I was going to do. At that stage, farming had completely taken me over.
Learning
I’d say it took me a good year to get a handle on cows in general. I was iffy about them because they were so big and I had never been around them, so I took my time with them. I’d go in and let them approach me instead of me approaching them, to earn their trust. I realised in my own way how to actually work around cattle.
Aedín has a real love for animals.
There were times where in my head I would be thinking that I wouldn’t be able to do a certain task, but I probably could do it, I just didn’t trust my own instincts. I always depended on someone else’s second opinion, mainly the vet or another farmer.
We have had a couple of female vets over the past few years and they are great. I was just a sponge with them. Any bit of information I could get off anyone, I was like, “Yeah tell me”, “I’ll write that down”, “I’ll look that up”. I wouldn’t like anyone to think that I know it all, because I don’t.
Work
Philip has a suckler farm just outside of Kells. I help out with that whenever I can. Most of the cows calve themselves thankfully, but it’s about getting the calf onto the cow and getting them to suck.
If there’s a weaker calf not sucking, I’ll give it the beestings myself and then let the cow do her job. Other than that I’m working full time on a dairy farm, just outside of Slane. At the minute, we’re milking about 90 of them. We’re still calving, we calve autumn and spring. I’m there about a year and a half.
Although not from a farming background, Aedín was very keen to learn about farming life.
Philip edged me to go working on a dairy farm because he knew that I would enjoy it so much. So he actually got me my first job up in Cavan. I was working on a crossbred farm.
I’d say some people who know me, think I don’t own any good clothes, because they never see me in them
This farmer was the man who showed me how to milk. He would have supported me a good bit too, even after I left he would ring me to see how I was getting on in my new job. I’ve had a good bit of support.
I’d say some people who know me, think I don’t own any good clothes, because they never see me in them. When they do they say. “Jaysus, you scrub up awful well”. I’ve been mistaken for a man a few times because I would have my hair tucked up into the hat. People would say, “Come here young lad”, and I wouldn’t say anything but I’d take the hat off and they’d say, “Oh sorry you’re a woman”. I’ve gotten that a good few times when people are in looking to sell something to the boss.
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