Flying the flag for the ladies
Most girls ask for beautiful jewellery, a laptop or a party for their 21st birthday, but not Helen Cork. Helen was thrilled when on the morning of her 21st birthday she found three cows with calves at foot in the field outside her house!
Growing up on a farm, Helen was always keen on animals and knew she wanted to work with them – she was involved with the calf rearing from an early age but she wasn’t expecting to start her own herd at the age of 21!
At the age of 26 Helen headed off to Dumfries to work for the Scottish Department of Agriculture and pursue her dream within the farming world – giving her dad the responsibility of looking after her beloved herd.
Helen is particularly pleased to be part of Ladies in Beef, she says the farming world is still very sexist: “With such a large agricultural sector, it would be easy to think that women play an equal role to men, however sadly I feel this is not the case. It is quite a male dominated industry as it is perceived as very physical and hands on and something women would not be strong enough for.
“However, I am happy to believe that more women are becoming more confident in what they believe and finding routes into agriculture through various agricultural groups and businesses, whether they are hands on farming or in an associated agricultural line of work. All the women I know that are involved in agriculture are very proud of that fact, myself included!”