When Sinéad Conry was crowned Queen of the Land in recent weeks, she was in fact celebrating not her first, but her second win of the weekend in Tullamore.

The annual festival hosted by Offaly Macra na Feirme runs across a whole weekend, with the winner announced late on Sunday night.

But, in the early hours of Sunday morning Sinéad from Ballinagare, Co Roscommon, stole away to the National Hereford Calf Show in Tullamore Mart.

A bull calf from her pedigree herd, Rathnollag Herefords, had to get primped and preened before she could get ready herself.

“While I was at Queen of the Land, Teddy, my bull calf, had an overnight stay in the mart in Tullamore. Top class B&B, I’d recommend it,” laughs Sinéad. “I left at 7am on the Sunday and went out to the mart where I did up Teddy and numerous animals for other breeders.

“Teddy was in class 10 and won that class, which was absolutely amazing. I left the calf show then at 4pm, rushed back to do my makeup and got on stage again at Queen of the Land. Teddy had a win and I had a win. Teddy brought me luck I believe.”

Cattle have been a huge part of 22-year-old Sinéad’s life, well, for nearly all of it. So it’s pretty apt she got to share her big win with one of her animals.

With her Holy Communion money, Sinéad bought a suck calf. For her 18th birthday her parents gifted her a Hereford in-calf heifer from which she was able to start her own pedigree herd. “I wanted to increase my herd, so I spent the next summer footing turf in the bog to get some money together. I went down to Kye Herefords of Elphin, Co Roscommon, and purchased my second one. It was hard-earned money, but it was well, well worth it.”

Sinéad struck up a friendship with Pádraig and Catherine McGrath of Kye Herefords. She has travelled all around Ireland and England to shows with them, learning from them and helping them. This summer, Sinéad had three of her own animals showing too, with the aforementioned Rathnollag Ted crowned reserve bull at the Tullamore Show.

Now secretary of the Connaught Branch of the Irish Hereford Breed Society, getting involved in the pedigree scene has proven very successful for Sinéad. As well as wins in the ring, this year she was awarded, alongside three others, a €2,000 bursary from the

Hereford Society to travel to New Zealand for a month in March 2020 to the World Hereford Conference.

Clearly, Sinéad has had many positive influences in her farming life, but none more so than her father Micky, who gave Sinéad, her sister and four brothers a great education around the farm. “I think since we were crawling Daddy had us out. When I was sick from school in junior or senior infants the one thing that sticks in my mind is Daddy saying the only thing to cure me was going out in the tractor with him.”

Micky has cattle and sheep. At the age of 19, Sinéad wanted to expand her own herd, so she took the decision to lease a nearby farm. She keeps commercial cattle, pedigree Herefords and a couple of pedigree Angus.

“Daddy has been great all my life letting me off to do my own farming, but it was getting to the stage where I wanted to increase my numbers, but we were at full capacity on Daddy’s farm. So I decided to branch out and rent my own 40ac with a yard.

“We work side-by-side on the two farms, I help him out and he helps me out. We’re a great team, I wouldn’t change it for the world. I say I’m independent, but you still need their support at the end of the day because they’ve been doing it all their lives. I’ve learned everything I know from him.”

To keep her busy, alongside farming, Sinéad is in the third year of a degree in environmental health science at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, now TU Dublin). From Monday to Thursday she’s in college and the rest of the week she is at home farming in Roscommon.

When she qualifies, the goal is to be an environmental health officer (EHO) with the likes of Safe Food, Bord Bia or Teagasc. Similar to her situation now, she wants to work full time and farm alongside that.

“Now, I can’t say the farmers will love to see me coming or anything, but sure look, I won’t go too hard on them,” says Sinéad with a grin. “I’ll come back then, have my farm and that’s my plan for life.”

With climate and agriculture in the spotlight at present, Sinéad feels that for farmers, the only way to tackle this is head-on; have their voices heard on the issue and highlight the actions they’re taking.

“It’s very topical at the moment, the methane being produced by cattle. And yes, cattle do produce methane. It’s not good enough for a farmer to say, ‘Look stop talking about that’. I think we need to come up with a persuasive argument.

“We need to come up with a way of feeding our cattle so they will produce less methane. I’ve read up on a study about feeding the cattle seaweed which, when done, it reduces methane. I think the only way to tackle this is to show we’re doing something, not hide and let people say what they want.”

The support system

No doubt, it was Sinéad’s ability to voice strong opinions that helped her stand out at Queen of the Land when she won on 10 November. The Conrys have a long association with Queen of the Land, as it’s where Sinéad’s parents met in 1983. Mary, her mother, was representing Roscommon that year. She and Micky got married a couple of years later.

“I’m a product of Macra. Only for Macra I wouldn’t be here. People laugh when I say that, but it’s true,” states Sinéad with a smile.

Interestingly, Sinéad has only been involved in Macra for the past year. She and some others from the locality decided after 10 years to re-establish the Elphin Macra branch. Just 12 months on, the club has 38 members and counting.

With the platform of Queen of the Land, Sinéad wants to tackle two main issues. Firstly, promoting rural Ireland, especially the young farmers that inhabit it. Secondly, encouraging farmers to take a break.

Sinéad is a firm believer that you can work hard on the farm and also have a social life. The fact that some farmers wouldn’t be inclined to leave their land for any extended period became evident to Sinéad when she got involved in the Hereford Society. As she had travelled to English shows, brought in a heifer from England and used English straws in her own herd, she feels a trip to the UK is a valuable experience for Irish breeders.

“I just thought, farmers need a break. So eventually we got 15 from the Connaught branch over to England. We had people aged from 13 to 75 and everything in between. One thing they said to me beforehand was, ‘Oh no, I can’t go away from the farm’.

“When we landed back in Dublin airport I was like, ‘Right lads, come here for a second, I want to ask ye one question. Did yer farms run away? Did yer farms burn down while ye were gone?’

“Every one of them was looking at me like, ‘What are you on about?’. I said, ‘No they didn’t’. Farmers need to take a break for themselves. Yes, in your busy times like calving, you can’t go away. It would be irresponsible, but in the quieter months farmers need to take a few days for themselves.”

A big positive of farming for Sinéad, is the associated sense of community and ethos of helping each other out. In her endeavours, whether it be starting her own herd, leasing her own land or aiming high in competitions, support from her neighbours, as well as her family, has been invaluable.

“They’re backing me. When I have my own house, my own family and I’m living in this area, I really think the support of the neighbours is going to be there still and it’s going to be so important.”

An advocate for farming, rural Ireland and young people, the future looks bright in the hands of the next generation.

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