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Conor Burke (12) will start sixth class in Donaghpatrick National School in Caherlistrane in September.
He is the youngest in his family and is happy to be on his summer holidays as it gives him more time to help his father Pat out on their farm, which is located between Headford and Tuam, Co Galway.
“I’m not up too early in the mornings but I do like to go herding the sheep and the cattle with Dad, which I wouldn’t be able to do when I’m in school,” he says.
“I’ve been coming to Tuam Mart since I was young and as I’ve got older, they’ve given me different jobs to do, which is good. I bring the sheets in to the office from the ring and I also get to meet my friend here so I really like mart days.”
Conor says one of his memories on the farm was giving his father a bit of a fright when they were out on the tractor one day.
“When Dad was busy with something else, I decided I wanted to go home, but I got a bit lost trying to get back to the house, so I think I gave everyone a bit of a scare,” he says, laughing.
Cummer National School
Brothers Matthew and David Connolly are pupils in Cummer National School, near Tuam. They help their dad Pat on their 110 acre farm, which is two miles from their home.
Matthew (10) is going into fifth class and says his favourite job is to bring the herd of 35 cattle down for milking with his father.
“One of our main jobs in the spring is to lay the straw down for the new calves, but sometimes it ends on top of them instead of under them,” says Matthew.
“My earliest memory is being allowed to feed a baby lamb when another one came along and bit me on the bum.”
His younger brother, eight-year-old David, will start second class in September and says he also loves herding the cattle with his father.
“I don’t have as many jobs as Matthew because he’s older than me but I also have a lot on over the summer as I go to Cúl Camps in the morning and then I have other things on in the evening,” he says.
“Dad has taught us all about how dangerous the farm can be and we know we’re not allowed near the tractor or the front loader if he isn’t around.”
Both Matthew and David enjoy the days when they’re allowed to go to the mart as they love how busy it is and they get to meet so many people.
“It’s nice to to be away from the farm in the evening doing something different to the usual jobs,” adds Matthew.
All three lads say they would consider farming as a career when they are older. However, both of their fathers say it will be a choice offered instead of a predetermined career path.
“It was very different when we were younger as it was something you just took on from your own parents but my lads have the experience of a farming father and a mother who works outside the home, independent of farming, so it will be a choice they can make,” says Pat Connolly.
“We are just back from a holiday where I had to get people in to run the farm while we were gone; cows won’t milk themselves twice a day. But that was the first day off I took since February so it’s hard going.”
Pat Burke agrees and says the way farming is headed, there will be very few full-time farmers in Ireland within a decade.
“It will only be those with 250 acres or more who can sustain it as a full-time career,” he says.
“I have an older son who is in the second year of an electrician apprenticeship and he has no interest in farming alongside that. It may well change as he gets older but that will be a choice for him to make.
“There are so many farms struggling to get labour and that isn’t likely to change, so Lord only knows what things will be like when these lads are young men, deciding on whether to farm the land or earn a living elsewhere.”
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