Laura's ploughing the right track

Clareen student Laura Grant won’t forget the recent Ploughing Championships any time soon.

Competing in her fifth championships, the 21 year old saw off the challenge of the country’s best female ploughers to win the Farmette Class for the first time.

To make her victory even sweeter, she claimed her first national crown in her own county.

“I always had it in my head to win an All Ireland Farmerette on my own tractor and plough and thought it would happen maybe next year or the year after, so I’m delighted my year came when I was on home turf,” she told the Offaly Independent.

Currently in her third year of the Agricultural Science degree course in Waterford Institute of Technology, Laura grew up on a farm and says that she was always interested in making a career for herself in the agricultural sector.

She started competing in ploughing competitions in 2011 and made her debut at the Ploughing Championships the year after, when it was held in New Ross.

Since then she has been on an upward curve in the Farmerette class, where she says the competition is as fierce as it in the male competition.

Although she admits that she felt a bit more pressure this year at the national finals on account of it being held in Offaly, she managed to put her nerves to one side to claim her first All Ireland.

When asked what are the most important attributes needed to be an All Ireland winning plougher, Laura says that patience and the ability to drive in a straight line top the list.

“I always find it very rewarding when it works out well, but you have to be able to take the good with the bad.”
Spoken like a true champion.