'If anything, I think they kind of admire what I do'
Farmer profile: Sebana Moynagh
For the Sebana Moynagh it was never a question that she would take over the Mountnugent family farm.
“My mam had always said, 'Whoever has an interest, takes over'.” Neither her brother nor her sister were keen on doing it, while Sebana had been accompanying her dad to marts and following him around the farm since she was able to walk.
“It really wasn’t a surprise for anyone,” Sebana said.
Just shy of the Meath border on Lough Sheelin, she runs a 90-cow pedigree suckler operation. The Breffni Charolais Herd specialises in the production of pedigree Charolais bulls and heifers which are sold to customers all over Ireland.
Farming remains a male dominated sector in Ireland, a fact reflected in the IFA hosting panel discussion on women in farming last Friday at Virginia Show Centre. Sebana was amongst the panel.
In her years of farming, nobody has made an issue about her being a woman. Merely her mother on occasion has been asked, why the son hadn’t taken over. Sebana puts that down to a generational mindset that she has not encountered.
“If anything, I think they kind of admire what I do, because I do most of it on my own.”
The farm features a state-of-the-art cubicle house with a straw-bedded lieback and an outdoor access pad for weanlings. Inside a number of automatic cattle brushes, automatic scrapers, a slurry aeration system, and a handling unit for hoove cutting and artificial insemination are all geared to support the one-person-operation. For six months of the year - “because that’s the way the weather has been going” - the cattle stay in the cubicle shed.
She takes pride in what she has achieved: “When people come in the wintertime to look at a bull, the cows in the shed nearly sell the bull with the comforts they have and the way they’re treated.”
At 23 she took over the farm from her father who had introduced the purebred Charolais in 1982. With her father still around to help, initially she didn’t focus on changing the setup or work steps. It was only when it was clear he was retiring altogether that Sebana looked at how to alter the workplace to make it safely manageable for one person. The changes included putting up more fences and drinkers to create smaller groups, creating corridors, good handling facilities and calving pens and a handling crush from New Zealand. These changes facilitated her expanding the herd from 40, to now 90 cattle.
“I don’t take chances with cattle, especially if she’s after calving,” she says. “At the end of the day, if something happens to me, the place will be sold and they’ll be saying ‘What took her out there anyway?’ That’s the reality.”
Another reality is that beef consumption has been declining in recent years.
“I’m a pedigree breeder. I’m selling bulls to farmers so there’s always a concern, where will it be in ten years’ time. Will I have any sale for my bull? The last couple years have been very good, I sell mainly to small suckler herds.”
But Sebana is aware that not many from the younger generation are taking up farm work and most people work off-farm as well which isn’t ideal during calving season.
“I’d be worried that it will be mostly big, factory farms in ten years time. The family farm is kind of gone sadly.”
As an enthusiastic farmer herself she hopes more people will find a path into agriculture. There is something for everyone: “If you want to farm, you should farm. Go and get experience, work on farms.”