Dairy farmer Louise takes Queen of the Land crown
A FARMER who recently entered a dairy partnership with her father has been crowned this year’s Clarke Machinery Queen of the Land.
Louise Crowley (23), who represented Limerick Macra, took home the coveted title in Tullamore on Sunday.
Louise was one of the founding members of Crecora Manister Croom Macra, which was set up less than two years ago.
“There was a club in the area a few years ago but lots of people got married so it kind of died out,” she told the Farming Independent.
“A few people were saying in the area that a club should be set up again so we had a information night and over 20 people turned up. We now have 50 members and are really thriving.”
While many have the perception that Macra is exclusively for farmers and some clubs have a problem recruiting non-farmers, Louise says their club has the opposite issue.
“We are actually trying to encourage more farmers to join our club. We have very few farmers at the moment, it’s mostly just people who live and work in the area,” she says.
“We set up a young farmers discussion group recently to encourage more young farmers to join so that is going well for us.”
Since setting up the club, Louise has become a model Macra member. Not only is she secretary of her club, she is county secretary of Limerick Macra and represented the county at the 2017 National Beef Stock judging competition.
She also sits on the National Agricultural Affairs committee.
“I love the role because it is where the policies for dairy, beef and tillage are set. I get the information and then I’m able to communicate it back to everyone in the county and make sure no information gets lost along the way,” she says.
Louise has reason to doubly celebrate at the moment as not only was she crowned Queen of the Land, she also graduated with a BA in Agricultural Science from CIT last month, having already got a dairy business course from Pallaskenry Agricultural College under her belt.
Moved on
She has now moved on and recently bought land near the home farm outside Croom, where she now runs a 150-cow Holstein Friesian herd with her father John.
Louise says she has been lucky that her dad has been “totally on board” with her going in to business with him on the farm because she says that’s not always the case.
“Some people would only let their daughters help out and not go in to partnership. Some people in the area were joking that I’d have to wait until I got my own fella to work with Dad but he’s totally on board and loves it,” she says.
Louise’s motive for initially taking part in Queen of the Land was for the “craic” as she never thought she would win; she says she was blown away when her name was called out on Sunday.
“I had never even been to the event before. The other girls had all achieved so much so I just couldn’t believe when my name was called out. I’ve such big shoes to fill from last year’s queen Emma. I just want to make the most of it,” she says.
As well as taking home the title, Louise won €1,000 in cash and a selection of other sponsored prizes.
Aisling O’Driscoll from Cork Macra was second and Roisin Lynch of Cavan was third.
Andrew Corrigan was named Escort of the Year by the 30 queens who competed.