Why the grass of the golf course is important to top young farmer
Brian Donaldson • Published 9 Feb 2012 13:30
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Fermanagh's top young farmer is certainly familiar with green grass but her work is slightly different from the type of farming she grew up with on the family livestock farm near Brookeborough.
Jayne Little, crowned Fermanagh Ulster Young Farmer of the Year in the female section at the recent Fermanagh County YFC dinner, is a greenkeeper at the Lough Erne Golf Resort, out early in the morning ensuring the fairways and greens are ready for top quality golf.
Jayne has not only won the Young Farmer of the Year title, but a host of awards recognising her attributes as the best Club Leader in Fermanagh. When it comes to YFC competitions, Jayne has won most of them whether it is stockjudging or debating.
However she loves her job, out on the fairways and greens in early morning before golfers have even woken, working alongside her colleagues at the prestigious Lough Erne Golf Resort.
Jayne completed the National Diploma Foundation Degree in horticulture at Greenmount Campus specialising in greenkeeping and amenity horticulture.
"In the summer, there are early morning starts to cut the greens," she says not in the slightest perturbed by such challenges.
As a result of Jayne's success in YFC competitions, she has just returned from a study trip to Sicily where she visited farms milking hundreds of sheep. And with contacts in the greenkeeping industry, she visited the Verdura Golf and Spa Resort, a championship golf course which will be hosting the Sicilian Open, a European Tour event this Spring and saw the work which goes into preparing a course for a major championship.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 09 Feb 12
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