Facebook page tells how to land the ‘perfect farmer’

Three farmers’ daughters have set up a Facebook page to give tips on how to land the perfect Irish farmer.

The ‘Farmers daughter blog’ page — set up by three Meath college students — gathered 4,000 adherents in its first three days.

Carol Lawless, Rachel Daly, and Shannon Kelly-Smith are all from farming backgrounds and couldn’t believe the misconceptions about farmers they experienced when they started college.

Rachel is the only one of the three studying agricultural science. Shannon is studying childcare, while Carol opted for a course in community development.

Carol said: “All the time, people say to me: ‘Sure you couldn’t be a farmer — you dress really well!” They must think women farmers go around in wellies and aprons with their sleeves rolled-up.

“I actually convinced a Dublin girl that there was no electricity in my house and we had to milk the cow every morning to have milk for breakfast cereal.”

The trio, who are all 21 years old, also decided that it was time to reveal that Irish farmers are far from the “gummy, smelly culchies” as they are often stereotyped.

“I’d never go out with a farmer because I know they work too hard but Rachel is only dying to catch one,” said Carol. “There are quite a number of fine catches out there in the farming world.”

Rachel added: “Some people can’t believe I’m studying agricultural science because of the way I dress. They think I should be doing business or commerce. It’s amazing how people imagine farmers to be.

“We came up with the idea for a page to give tips on how to get a good farmer and the page just spiralled since we set it up in January. We had 4,000 fans in just three days. We can’t get over how nominations are pouring into the page for the ‘Farmer of the Day’ title.”

One recent nomination tells of a “proper bachelor farmer who is in dire need of a good country woman! A decent Louth man who is far from ‘wee’ himself, he likes nothing more than being elbow deep in a heifer when the occasion calls for it.”

You can view the page at www.facebook.com/blogforfarmersdaughters.