’There can be more low days than high, but the high ones will carry you through them’

​Tipperary-based farmer Jade Fielding has the arduous task of juggling her farming duties with a full time nine-to-six job.

​Jade, who is originally from Moat but now resides in Ballingarry, works with J Grennan & Sons animal feeds throughout the day, while trying to also undertake her tasks on her farm during the evening. Days are busy and at times, difficult, but Jade ultimately takes joy in what has always been an ambition of hers.

READ MORE: ​‘Murder on Lough Derg’: a mystery whodunnit set on local shores

Recently, Jade spoke with the Tipperary Star about her experience as both a farmer and a full-time worker, her entry into the world of farming, and what keeps her motivated.

“I'm from just outside Moat originally, but I am now living in in Ballingarry, just outside Shinrone, and I'm farming down here and at home in Moat, and working for Grennans [feed company] as well, so I'm working full time and I have a farm rented down here in Shinrone, and I'm renting my home farm at home in Moat as well.

“I'm gone to work from 9am to 6pm, and when I come home then, I go and do the herding, I have about 20 suckler cows, and I also keep about 50 dry stock heifers that I kill off the grass in between July and September every year.

“During the week I could be on the road with work, and so I do our branches for Grennans, and actually I’d be around Moat as well, so luckily I'm able to tip in on my lunch at home and do the herding at home as well.

SUPPORT

“There's days that not everything gets done, and it runs into the next day, there's plenty of them days as well, but sure, I'm lucky that I have the support at home.

"Liam, my partner, is a contractor as well, so I’d doing farming bits for them, and in my downtime I could then end up having to either bring food to a field somewhere, or I could get roped in to draw silage.”

Jade got her start in farming through her father, who owned a small family farm when she was young. From there, her love of the field began to grow, and she realised that this was what she wanted to do for a living.

"I come from a small farm at home. Daddy always kept a few sucklers, but very small, 20 acres. Overall,we had 60 acres but about 40 of them were always rented out until I went to Gurteen, and I did dairy herd management.

"I was always working on farms or milking for someone or contracting when I was at home, either drawing silage with contractors or milking, and I suppose coming from such a small farm at home, I knew I wasn't ever going to be milking at home, or anything like that.

“When I went to Gurteen [Agricultural College] and did a few years farming for everyone else, I eventually went working in agri businesses. I felt that would give me the freedom to be able to do my own farming in the evenings and on the weekends, and that I wasn't just always farming someone else's stock for them as a job. I went to Gurteen and I never went home after that, really".

READ MORE: World is 'staring down the barrel of a loaded gun' warns Tipperary peace campaigner

I was working on a large dairy farm milking 500 cows, I was assistant manager there for three years in Birr, and when I left there, I went working for Arrabawn, and that gave me the free time to start my own farming enterprise. So I started off by renting a 30 acre farm in Shinrone, and renting a yard, and then a year or two into that, when I got stock numbers up, I was able to rent my own home farm off my father, so that's how I ended up farming between Moat and Shanrone.”

HIGHS AND LOWS

Jade spoke of the highs and lows she goes through throughout the year, and what keeps her going when the bad days come.

"There can be more low days than high, but the high ones will carry it through them, like you could have a great week, and three cows calved, and they all got up, and they all sucked.

The next week, you could lose two calves in the one day, you know, just down to, between working a full-time job, it could end up being put down to poor management, or else the luck of the draw, you can't live with them, like, and you need to take them days.

“And there'll be loads of them where you're like, ‘Jesus, what am I doing this for?”’ and ‘I'm after carrying that cow all year, and now she's after losing the calf’, and ‘what a waste of money’, and ‘I have bills next week’.

"Those days usually come when it's raining and cattle are in the shed, but you do go through bouts of depression at that stage of the year, but, like, when it comes to spring and the cattle are out and the calves are sucking and everything's going well and the sun is shining, you kind of just need to hold on to them ones.”

You can keep up to date with Jade via her Instagram account @jadefielding.