“Daddy can I go up on top,

Can I go up on top of the trailer,

I swear to god I’ll be careful”.

We all know the lyrics to the Saw Doctors “Hay Wrap” song.

We all know how helpful it is to have someone on top of a 15 or 16 foot high load of bales when it comes to tying the load. It is useful to make sure that the strap is in the right place. A well-tied load is a lot safer on the road. It’s still not a safe place to have someone sitting travelling from the field to the farmyard.

Have I done it? As a neighbour of mine often said “I would hate to have to walk back the distance that I have travelled on top of various loads”. It would be a long walk. We had an out farm three miles from the farm yard and that was where I sat.

I have spent most of my life since and including college living in an apartment or a housing estate both in the Ireland and outside. I don’t like living in housing estates or apartments. Living on a farm is a blessing and that’s where I go anytime I get a chance. But it is also a very dangerous place.

On a farm you are often given credit for growing up faster than your friends who grew up in the town. You start driving at a younger age, you start working at a younger age. You are involved in a way of life and a fully operational business from a young age. That’s what develops your love and passion for farming.

A day in the life during my summer holidays as a child and a teenager would most likely make a good list of what not to do. With finances often tight, we took chances with machinery and livestock that we might not have taken if we had the funds for safer equipment or better handling facilities. That’s often the thing with a fragmented farm; you take chances because the facilities are back at the farmyard.

I grew up, had fun and escaped unscathed. My older sister however did have a serious accident and spent a long time in Temple Street hospital. Her love for horses and fear of nothing brought that eight year old girl into a field she had been warned out of by my parents hundreds of times. No one knows what happened, but the mark of the yearling’s hoof can still be seen on the side of her head.

It was tough for my parents, it was tough for my sister, it was a tough time for the whole family. But we are one of the lucky ones because I still have my big sister around to keep an eye on me.