Since returning to farm full-time last year, Jane Shackleton may have found herself muttering the family motto –“by endurance we conquer” – on more than one occasion.

“Trying to fix a drinker,” laughs the organic beef and sheep farmer whose previous jobs have ranged from teaching English in Sri Lanka and herding cattle in the Australian outback to working as a wedding planner.

So while she obviously possesses the adventurous spirit of her famous cousin, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, Jane is actually following in the footsteps of the women in her family as the third generation of females to take the reins at Lakeview Organic Farm in Mullagh, Co Cavan.

Lakeview has been in the maternal side of Jane’s family, the Mortimers, since 1666, but Jane’s parents, Daphne and Jonathan, relocated here from Dublin with their young family in 1996 after Daphne inherited the farm from her cousin June Mortimer.

While Jonathan, a historian and author who leads regular Antarctic trips, concentrated on developing the forestry, Daphne, an artist and horticulturist, took charge of the farm, converting to an organic system, improving the Aberdeen Angus suckler herd and developing the infrastructure.

“I don’t know how she did it,” reflects Jane (32), who also has an older brother, David, and a younger sister, Hannah.

With such a strong female role model, perhaps it’s no surprise that Jane has followed in Daphne’s welly-prints – though perhaps taking a more scenic route.

Unsure of what to do after her Leaving Cert, Jane spent six months as a TEFL English language teacher in Sri Lanka, followed by another six-month stint herding cattle in the Australian outback.

“You had two guys in helicopters bringing (the cattle) to you and then you picked them up on horseback and then you had another week of bringing them into the yard,” she says of the scale of the operation. “Our closest town was maybe four hours’ drive away.”

Returning home, Jane completed a geography degree in Trinity, but continued to enjoy a range of roles, from working on an ecotourism project in Vancouver and a vegetable farm in Nova Scotia to her last job as a wedding planner in Clonabreany House in Co Meath.

Last June, however, Jane decided the time had come to return to Lakeview to farm full-time – even if her decision raised the brows of some of her city-based friends.

“A lot of them think I’m mad,” acknowledges Jane with a smile. “But they think, it’s what I want to do. They don’t think it’s out of the ordinary for me.”

Of the 110ha farm, Jane and her mother currently work about 60ha, with the remainder leased out and an additional 25ha in forestry. Their farm is primarily an Angus spring-calving suckler herd, with all progeny finished on grass and red clover and sold through Leitrim Organic Farmer Co-Op to Slaney Meats, as well as to Good Herdsman Ltd.

Keen to put her own stamp on the farm, however, Jane has also started her own organic sheep herd, investing in 40 Texel-Charolais crosses.

“I was fed up of pulling ragworth,” she jokes. “It took me a long time to actually do it because everybody was telling me: ‘Don’t do it: sheep are misery.’”

However, with the guidance of her neighbour – plus YouTube – Jane survived her first year of lambing and is now taking direct orders for organic lamb boxes, working with Flood’s Butchers in Oldcastle to have them cut to order.

It’s not the only example of recent diversification at Lakeview. With a former harness room on site that had been previously converted for accommodation, Jane decided to make it available for rent online though Airbnb last summer, with visitors paying €100 a night to stay.

Since then, despite – or perhaps, because of – the rural location, Jane has been “flat out” with guests. Indeed, when we call there is an American couple in situ for two weeks.

“People don’t want to stay in hotels. They’re looking for something unusual and a little bit different,” says Jane, who has earned “super-host” status due to the amount of five-star reviews from her guests who crave a genuine rural Irish experience.

“Sometimes, you don’t see people the whole time they’re here; then others come out on the farm with me and check the sheep.”

But as well as bringing welcome interaction to the farm, the Airbnb income is absolutely essential as Jane establishes herself at Lakeview.

“I couldn’t farm without it,” she stresses.

While Jane takes charge of the everyday work at Lakeview – with the help of visiting WOOFers who help out in exchange for bed and board – this is still very much a partnership with her mother, with major decisions taken jointly, striking a balance between experience and enthusiasm.

“I see a lot of her in me when I was quite young I have to say, only recently. It’s scary,” says Daphne, who believes that the partnership came at “just the right time” for both of them.

“She’s very organised and she thinks ahead and does things before it gets a problem. Very, very practical- she’s better at fixing water tanks than I ever was,” she adds.

“She’s always had a natural affinity with animals, whether it’s horses, dogs or cattle. She’s always had the natural ability to handle animals. She can go into a field and get them to move without a word or a shout or anything, so that’s something that I do believe you cannot learn. That’s an intuitive thing.”

Jane, meanwhile, thinks it’s important that mother and daughter each have their own space (she does not live in the family farmhouse) and appreciates having parents who “think outside the box” and who encourage her to take time away from the farm when she needs a break.

“My mum’s really good if you’re getting frazzled or whatever,” she says. “She’s like: ‘Just go to Dublin for the day, or go stay with a friend.’ And that’s really important because it’s very easy to get stuck into the routine.”

Indeed, Jane has recently taken on another role providing social media content for Bord Bia’s campaign in the Netherlands, based on her Instagram and Facebook posts following her life on the farm, as well as contributing to the Farmer Writes section of the Irish Farmers Journal online. She started a distance master’s in organic farming in Aberdeen this month and is studying for her Green Cert at Ballyhaise Agricultural College, while future plans include increasing the suckler and sheep herd, renovating a second farm cottage for Airbnb and growing direct sales of her own organic meat.

And by endurance, she is sure to conquer.

Visit www.lakevieworganic.com CL