Corrib Oil Women in Farming Winner 2019

By Corrib Oil | 3rd October 2019

The Final of the Corrib Oil Women in Farming 2019 competition took place recently at the National Ploughing Championships in Fenagh, Co. Carlow. The competition had over 100 entries from women all over Ireland. Contestants were self-nominated or nominated by family or friends. The women came from all types of farming backgrounds and enterprises and the 3 judges had a mammoth task in narrowing it down to three who took part in the awards ceremony at the Ploughing.

The competition is organized each year by Corrib Oil to highlight the importance of women in farming and to show that there are hundreds of farms that have women managing them along with full-time employment and home responsibilities. The Judging panel consisted of highly respected farm industry professionals.

The judges were John Lynskey,  previous chairman of the IFA national sheep committee, Assumpta Mullin, secretary of the South Mayo Quality Lamb Producer Group, and Richard Moeran, previous chairman of Agri Aware.

The judges carried out in-depth interviews and visits to the farms of the three finalists, Sinead  Cusack in Co. Mayo, Amy Jackson in Co. Tipperary and Bronagh O’Rourke in Co. Clare. Assumpta Mullins said that the standard had again risen year on year making it a highly difficult task to pick a winner.

On the day of the final, the three ladies were interviewed at a packed Corrib Oil Stand by Darragh McCullough from Ear to the Ground. Darragh paid tribute to all the hard work in challenging and uncertain times. After further deliberations, it was announced that the 2019 winner was Sinead Cusack from Newport in Co. Mayo to the delight of her huge traveling support.

Sinead is a sheep and suckler farmer and says her biggest achievement to date is that she is still farming given many setbacks such as reducing stock in the early 2000s. Sinead has 70 May Black- Face ewes on 100 hectares and helps her father with his 200 ewe flock.  Sinead received a cheque for €1000 and a beautiful piece of Galway Crystal.

At Corrib Oil we would like to thank Sinead and all our competitors and we look forward to another year of the competition in 2020. Thanks to our judges Richard, Assumpta & John along with our MC Darragh McCullough.