Shawnti Coolahan gets into calf ear-tagging without the pressure of a male-dominated yard surrounding her.
A new women’s farming group launched in September has already set the benchmark for the quality of delivering useful stockyard skills to its members.
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Ladies in Livestock is the brainchild of founder Jacqueline Laughlin who had been ruminating on the idea for more than 10 years while attending farming conferences.
“I was speaking to women and younger women particularly who were new to farming and some more older ladies who have husbands who are a bit impatient with them in the yards,” Mrs Laughlin said.
“So I thought ‘wouldn’t it be good to teach women just the basic practicalities’.”
The group of 12 has so far undertaken practical learning of tagging, marking and vaccinating calves and lambs.
“We also did the DNA testing of the Wagyu calves.
“And the girls get to actually do it, and not in a pressure environment either, so they feel comfortable while they learn.
“Twelve seems to be just the right size for a class or else it gets too crowded in the yards.”
Ms Laughlin said the group was planning to start a men’s course next year.
“We will call it ‘New Farming Men’,” she said.
“A lot of men are a bit loath to do it; they think ‘Oh, I just better listen to the neighbour’.
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