Michael Gowing walks his land outside Portlaoise. For Michael (21), there is nothing in the world that can beat the farming life in his native county. "I don't follow football and I play no sport. I am too busy on the farm most of the time, but I enjoy what I do and I hope to continue doing it." Photograph: Paddy Whelan
In the 1950s, rural folk used to sing a song entitled Daddy when you die will your leave me the farm? It was a social comment on its time. Now, at the end of the 1990s, "daddy" still has not delivered and the age profile of Irish farmers is, to say the least, middle-aged.
For instance, in 1991 more than 45 per cent of all farm holders were over 55 and almost 23 per cent were over 65. There has been a slight improvement in the meantime, but only because the number of farmers has declined. Today only 12 per cent of farmers are under 35.
Young people are turning their backs on farming because they are not sure it will deliver a living; it is too tied up with weather and, for the young, it is a lonely occupation.
But for one young midlander, Michael Gowing (21), there is nothing in the world that can beat the farming life in his native Laois.
Michael was recently named the 1999 Agricultural Student of the Year from 900 of his peers at the completion of his Teagasc Certificate in Farming course.
This week at his home in Kilminchy, Portlaoise, Michael explains his reasons for staying on the land and making a full-time career from the soil.
Michael received 475 points in his Leaving Cert but opted for a full-time career in farming by going to Rockwell College, Tipperary, for his training.
"I am the fifth generation of Gowings who have farmed here in Portlaoise and I help to run the 245-acre farm with my parents, Michael and Kitty," he says. "It is a very busy life, but I made a decision early on that I wanted to farm and I have not changed my mind since then." He feels in no way disadvantaged that he has a brother and sister in college studying pharmacy and agricultural science, because they were doing what they want to do.
"I never really got slagged when I went to secondary school in Portlaoise when I said I was going to farm and I still have good friends there," he says.
Michael believes there is a growing rift between urban and farming people and that it is becoming wider as urban people move further from the land.
"When I was younger and went to Dublin, I would meet people who had been born in rural Ireland or the children of people who were born in the country," he says, "but that link seems to be broken now with the third generation and I would like to see greater education so that our case is explained more fully to urban people." His social life is also tied up in farming. He is an active member of Macra na Feirme, the youth organisation for young rural people. "I don't follow football and I play no sport. I am too busy on the farm most of the time, but I enjoy what I do and I hope to continue doing it." He never feels the sense of isolation that most young farmers are supposed to feel, but he thinks things may be difficult for young farmers who do not live in the midlands.
"There are young people involved in farming here in the midlands but not as many in the west. I meet them at marts and the creamery and of course at Macra." Michael, who does not have a girlfriend, would like to marry and have children sometime in the future. He is not afraid of the future and believes he can get a living from the land despite the constant warnings of gloom and doom which surround the industry.
His greatest ambition is to travel and, of course, to farm as effectively as he can.