My da, when he was milking, I used to sit on the steps of the parlour and watch him. From no age we used to get our sandwiches on the parlour steps.
I was always looking to go out on the farm with Da, always in beside him in the tractor or in the parlour or standing beside the crush.
In school I thought I wanted to go into veterinary. I did well in school, I could have gone on and done veterinary, I had all the grades, but I just didn’t want to. I went and did an agriculture degree in Greenmount and Queens.
It was brilliant to pick everybody’s brains about what they were doing on their farm and bring that information home
I would do Greenmount over and over again. You were sitting in a class of 40 other people and that was 40 other farming systems to learn about.
It was brilliant to pick everybody’s brains about what they were doing on their farm and bring that information home.
You weren’t just picking up stuff from lectures, you were able to pick up stuff from other farmers, which I never really had before. I thrived in Greenmount, it was the making of me.
In 2015, Anna received a £1,000 bursary from the Irish Farmers Journal to help the cost of her studies at CAFRE Greenmount, here with northern editor David Wright.
I’m 22 now. I graduated last July and came home to farm here in Co Down among some protest.
My da has farmed all his life and he never really got the option to not come home.
In fairness to him, it was always a case of go and do what you want, but he knew what it was like and he knew it was going to be hard. Farming is not an easy way to make money and it’s not an easy way to live.
Once I got my degree he was kind of like: “Now you’ve got your degree, you can go and get a big job.”
Me, my brother William and Da are on the farm. I have an older brother, he has his own engineering business
That was the point where I was like: “Nah, I’m putting my foot down here and I’m coming home to farm.” We said that we’d give it a year of me full-time farming. That was last summer and no, I don’t think I’ll be giving it up anytime soon.
Me, my brother William and Da are on the farm. I have an older brother, he has his own engineering business.
We have a caravan park as well, my mum and my sister work on that side of things, but really everyone rows in together.
On the farm
We have dairy and sheep here. We milk pedigree Holsteins, they’re under Castletru Holsteins. My da set it up in 1989. We calve all year round.
I’d be milking everyday pretty much. I’d either get a Saturday morning, Sunday morning or a Sunday evening off. Generally it’s 13 milkings a week anyway.
There’s many a time I think we need a rotary. Sometime when we win the lottery maybe!
On the sheep side, Da has pedigree Dorsets, my brother has pedigree Texels and we also have some commercials.
Anna Truesdale with her classmates Tom Digby Keady, Jane Douglas, Donald and Ruari McAnulty on their graduation day from Greenmount.
I’m in the middle of doing the AI course at the moment. My da has done AI for 30 years and he finds it easy. I think it’s just a case of practice making perfect, at the minute it’s quite difficult.
I share a lot of my farming life on Instagram. There’s no beating around the bush, Joe Bloggs your general public man is fairly ignorant to farming systems and where his food comes from.
Everything I put up is very layman, most folk can understand it and it’s very inclusive.
Instagram is brilliant too for getting to know and chatting to people
Folk message regularly to say: “Oh I didn’t know this”, or: “Thanks so much for showing this.”
Instagram is brilliant too for getting to know and chatting to people who are in the same industry as you, facing the same problems as you.
Highs and lows
Farming, there are a lot of lows, but for all the lows there are a lot more highs. If there are problems you just grit your teeth and figure them out.
It’s been hard at times. Like on most family farms, there’ve been fights here and there’ve been tears, but you get through it.
We’re all working towards the same thing and I’m proud to be part of this farm, especially being a woman as well.
I’m not doing anything better than he is and he’s not doing anything better than I am, we’re equal and we’re working together
That’s a big buzz word, but I always say we’re not trying to set women apart from men. I’m never shouting that we’re better, but just the fact that I can say: “My brother can do this job and I can do it too.”
Being a woman doesn’t stop me from doing it.
I’m not doing anything better than he is and he’s not doing anything better than I am, we’re equal and we’re working together.
It’s really cool to me that’s how the industry has come on, whereas 20 years ago women did the same work, but they didn’t get the recognition for it.
I’m really grateful that my da has given me the opportunity to be here and work alongside them
I’m really grateful that my da has given me the opportunity to come home. History writes it that if there’s an older brother, he comes home and that’s his farm.
“There’s a daughter, oh sure we’ll marry her off.” I’m really grateful that my da has given me the opportunity to be here and work alongside them. It wasn’t: “That’s his farm, go sort yourself out.”
It was: “This is our farm, let’s work on it.”
I think going forward there’ll need to be some sort of diversification or an added value to the farm. The way things are going we can’t just afford to sit and take over like we have been, but for now we’re happy where we are.
Read more
My Country Living: 'Technically I'm farming on two continents at the moment'
My Country Living: 'Can you ever really have enough sheep?'
My da, when he was milking, I used to sit on the steps of the parlour and watch him. From no age we used to get our sandwiches on the parlour steps.
I was always looking to go out on the farm with Da, always in beside him in the tractor or in the parlour or standing beside the crush.
In school I thought I wanted to go into veterinary. I did well in school, I could have gone on and done veterinary, I had all the grades, but I just didn’t want to. I went and did an agriculture degree in Greenmount and Queens.
It was brilliant to pick everybody’s brains about what they were doing on their farm and bring that information home
I would do Greenmount over and over again. You were sitting in a class of 40 other people and that was 40 other farming systems to learn about.
It was brilliant to pick everybody’s brains about what they were doing on their farm and bring that information home.
You weren’t just picking up stuff from lectures, you were able to pick up stuff from other farmers, which I never really had before. I thrived in Greenmount, it was the making of me.
In 2015, Anna received a £1,000 bursary from the Irish Farmers Journal to help the cost of her studies at CAFRE Greenmount, here with northern editor David Wright.
I’m 22 now. I graduated last July and came home to farm here in Co Down among some protest.
My da has farmed all his life and he never really got the option to not come home.
In fairness to him, it was always a case of go and do what you want, but he knew what it was like and he knew it was going to be hard. Farming is not an easy way to make money and it’s not an easy way to live.
Once I got my degree he was kind of like: “Now you’ve got your degree, you can go and get a big job.”
Me, my brother William and Da are on the farm. I have an older brother, he has his own engineering business
That was the point where I was like: “Nah, I’m putting my foot down here and I’m coming home to farm.” We said that we’d give it a year of me full-time farming. That was last summer and no, I don’t think I’ll be giving it up anytime soon.
Me, my brother William and Da are on the farm. I have an older brother, he has his own engineering business.
We have a caravan park as well, my mum and my sister work on that side of things, but really everyone rows in together.
On the farm
We have dairy and sheep here. We milk pedigree Holsteins, they’re under Castletru Holsteins. My da set it up in 1989. We calve all year round.
I’d be milking everyday pretty much. I’d either get a Saturday morning, Sunday morning or a Sunday evening off. Generally it’s 13 milkings a week anyway.
There’s many a time I think we need a rotary. Sometime when we win the lottery maybe!
On the sheep side, Da has pedigree Dorsets, my brother has pedigree Texels and we also have some commercials.
Anna Truesdale with her classmates Tom Digby Keady, Jane Douglas, Donald and Ruari McAnulty on their graduation day from Greenmount.
I’m in the middle of doing the AI course at the moment. My da has done AI for 30 years and he finds it easy. I think it’s just a case of practice making perfect, at the minute it’s quite difficult.
I share a lot of my farming life on Instagram. There’s no beating around the bush, Joe Bloggs your general public man is fairly ignorant to farming systems and where his food comes from.
Everything I put up is very layman, most folk can understand it and it’s very inclusive.
Instagram is brilliant too for getting to know and chatting to people
Folk message regularly to say: “Oh I didn’t know this”, or: “Thanks so much for showing this.”
Instagram is brilliant too for getting to know and chatting to people who are in the same industry as you, facing the same problems as you.
Highs and lows
Farming, there are a lot of lows, but for all the lows there are a lot more highs. If there are problems you just grit your teeth and figure them out.
It’s been hard at times. Like on most family farms, there’ve been fights here and there’ve been tears, but you get through it.
We’re all working towards the same thing and I’m proud to be part of this farm, especially being a woman as well.
I’m not doing anything better than he is and he’s not doing anything better than I am, we’re equal and we’re working together
That’s a big buzz word, but I always say we’re not trying to set women apart from men. I’m never shouting that we’re better, but just the fact that I can say: “My brother can do this job and I can do it too.”
Being a woman doesn’t stop me from doing it.
I’m not doing anything better than he is and he’s not doing anything better than I am, we’re equal and we’re working together.
It’s really cool to me that’s how the industry has come on, whereas 20 years ago women did the same work, but they didn’t get the recognition for it.
I’m really grateful that my da has given me the opportunity to be here and work alongside them
I’m really grateful that my da has given me the opportunity to come home. History writes it that if there’s an older brother, he comes home and that’s his farm.
“There’s a daughter, oh sure we’ll marry her off.” I’m really grateful that my da has given me the opportunity to be here and work alongside them. It wasn’t: “That’s his farm, go sort yourself out.”
It was: “This is our farm, let’s work on it.”
I think going forward there’ll need to be some sort of diversification or an added value to the farm. The way things are going we can’t just afford to sit and take over like we have been, but for now we’re happy where we are.
Read more
My Country Living: 'Technically I'm farming on two continents at the moment'
My Country Living: 'Can you ever really have enough sheep?'
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