‘There is nothing to beat the quality of life in farming’

BRIMFUL of enthusiasm and knowledge on practical farming, Sophie Reilly is a farmer’s daughter who has her mind made up that “farming is a great way of life”. Her ambition is to become a full-time farmer in her own right.

A student at the Royal School Cavan and member of one of the team of finalists interviewed at the Ploughing, she is planning to keep agricultural science high on her selection of subjects for further education and find a full-time career as close as possible to practical farming.

She loves working on the family dairy farm, where a 95-cow herd is the main enterprise. She believes that “there is nothing to beat” the quality of life and career satisfaction that can be had from a well-run dairy farm despite the many challenges that farming can present.

The dairy herd on the Reilly farm has increased almost three-fold since quota restrictions were lifted.

“My dad says that he is not going above 100 cows and I think he is right because it is a more manageable size and larger herds can result in a big increase in the costs and a lot more work,” she says.

She is enthusiastically looking forward to her participation in the Angus competition with her co-team members, Rachel Alexander, Barry Stratford, Lloyd Hastings and Kevin McNally, all of whom come from farming backgrounds.

Part-time

The theme chosen by the team is ‘The Value of Irish Angus as a Production System’ in conjunction with which they have undertaken to study the benefits of part-time farming and the production of cattle from a grass-based system versus grain fed.

It is the first time for the school to participate in the competition, the seed for which was planted during the school’s agricultural science visit to the Ploughing Championships last year.

Of the 220 enrolment at the school, a high percentage of the students are from farming backgrounds.