Taking a break from the busy calving season to join us on this week’s Young Stock Podcast is Kate Fitzgerald.

From a young age, Kate had a passion for livestock and farming. She would run home from school to help her father on their suckler farm outside Dungarvan.

Unfortunately, her father died by suicide in 2017, which meant they had to make the hard decision to sell out the herd. At the age of 21, Kate got the cows ready for the sale and took on a full-time job in the local factory to support her family.

We discuss her return to farming and why she decided to leave her full-time job to come into the farm enterprise with her husband, Shane and his father, John. She talks about completing the Teagasc green-cert in Kildalton and how she found the distant learning course.

Being a woman in the sector, we talk about speaking up in discussion groups and the importance of having your say.

Listen in below:

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