Bronagh O'Kane is among a small group of women registered as principal farmers in NI.
Family emigration and the Covid pandemic helped lea Bronagh O'Kane to her love affair with farmingAfter 20 years of living in Scotland, Bronagh O'Kane came home to help out on the family farm.But with one brother emigrating and another starting his own business, combined with the effect of the Covid pandemic, that changed very quickly.
"I did have farmers at the mart asking me: 'Don't you have any brothers?' I just laugh at it, they don't mean anything harmful by it.Bronagh hopes attitudes towards women in farming will keep changing over time It also found that women make up as little as 5% of registered principal farmers in Northern Ireland.
She said "sharing experiences is key to creating solutions" and helping support women - something that would also have "huge benefits for the Northern Ireland agri-food industry as a whole"."They have an important role to play in the women-in-agriculture movement because while things are changing, with more women leading farm businesses, the biggest percentage of farmers is still older males.