I was delighted recently to be invited to be part of a discussion panel held on International Women’s Day, titled ‘Women Step into Farming’ at the European Commission Representation headquarters in Dublin.

It’s something I’d never have even dreamed of being a part of just a few years ago. It’s only as I grow older I am getting more comfortable with myself and in what I do, along with a fair helping of realisation that being a bit more confident isn’t going to turn me into a control queen.

If anyone knew how shy I was growing up, they’d realise that was about as likely as myself winning the Rose of Tralee and considering I’m well past the age limit, that’s definitely not happening.

It was a great opportunity to mingle and meet people who I’d only ever spoken to online or over the phone before and a nice day away from the farm, along with having some excellent points raised about the lack of female representation in Irish farming.

While I’ve never felt myself excluded in all my years in farming, I believe my work in marts around the country for many years was a great advantage as I was as happy chatting away with anyone who’d stand to talk, be they male or female.

I finally got around to planting the heritage apple trees we received from the Burrenbeo Trust near the end of last year.

With a few other fruit trees planted as well, along with our usual veg plot, we’re slowly getting the farm more sustainable year-on-year.

While we have no plans for hens as there can be loose dogs around here, on a recent walk I found an adorable honesty box with hen eggs.

As I can see the land they’re from once I step outside the door, that’s about as local as I could hope for.

Our clearance of the fallen hay shed has also started with a skip arriving at the start of the week. Though we’re still finding implements strewn about the backyard and through the fields beside my house.

One such lucky find was the implement we use to change the flails on the rotary mower (or a yokeymabob as it’s often termed here) as that would surely cause some damage when mowing in summer.

Beef prices

Back with the cattle, we’re still waiting on our two overdue cows to make their minds up so it’s looking likely to be a couple of bull calves, and with both due to Charolais, fingers crossed both arrive safely.

In suckler farming you don’t need to be a genius to breed quality cattle, the key is having the cattle at the heart of what you do and a grá for hardship without a weekly pay cheque.

Ours have weathered us with decent weanling prices through good years and bad, and when you see calves going unsold at €1,500 when they’d barely scraped €1,200 a year ago, I wonder where it is all going to end.

Years ago our aim was to have a calf reach €1,000 at weaning age of around seven months and last week we managed to double it with our final bull calf to sell from last year.

If we had any sense, we’d clear out the shed of cattle and only keep a few, but between the history behind most of the cows, along with a few schemes we’re in which require a certain number of cattle, it’s not going to happen.