When some of the lads at school used to say that she wouldn't be able to get a job driving a tractor, it just made Amy Brouder even more determined to break ground in the agri-contracting world.

And in doing her bit to buck the 'only-men-can-drive-tractors' trend, the Limerick lady landed her first driving gig in May 2020 with Lane Agri Contracting and Plant Hire, in Duagh, Co. Kerry.

And why not?

After all, the 19-year-old Pallaskenry dairying student is passionate about tractors - always has been - and is "mad for driving".

Any lad who said the same would be given a job drawing silage or spreading slurry without a second thought being cast.

Paddy Lane, owner of the Kerry-based agri-contracting company that gave Amy her first taste of contracting work said that other individuals in similar positions as him should "ease up" and give the girls a chance.

And there are plenty of good reasons why female drivers are worth considering for your fleet - more about that later.

Amy is one of four female drivers - along with Sharon O'Donoghue, Ellie Lyons and Kylie Walsh - who has been given a seat the wheel of some serious machines by Paddy.

They all do contracting work for him at various times of the year - as the calendar requires - and drive whatever needs to be driven depending on the job.

"Paddy lets us drive everything - for slurry, silage, lime, work with the dump trailers, drawing bales - everything and anything. There is no discrimination between the boys and the girls," said Amy.

AMY'S TOP TRACTORSAmong Paddy's fleet, it is the Valtra 8550 or the Valtra T191.But the dream tractor would be a Fendt, she said.

So where did her interest in driving tractors come from?

"We have a farm at home with tractors and quads, and I have always been into them.

"And when I was in school, I would enjoy talking about silage and tractors with the lads more than I would be about anything else with the girls."

But when some of them said that she wouldn't get a job driving a tractor, well, it just gave her the impetus to plough ahead and prove them wrong.

"It just made me want to try harder," she said.

It has been worth it, she said, especially when she sees some of the reactions that she and her female colleagues provoke.

That 'gawking' is inevitable when you consider how few of these drivers are women, but Amy and her Kerry crew - and Paddy - are doing their bit to change the culture and shake up the status quo.

For Paddy, he has found that female drivers are hugely dependable, hard-working and - despite what some might think - have no problems handling machinery.

The first female driver he took on was as a result of a chance meeting at a job a few years back. The farmer's niece was there at the time, and she told Paddy that she was studying at Pallaskenry and asked if he might have a summer job going.

A few weeks later, Paddy needed help with a job after he had been let down. Recalling the conversation with the 'farmer's niece' a few weeks previously, he gave her a call.

That was Kylie, and the rest as they say...

Paddy was one of the first contractors around his patch of Kerry to take on female drivers but now, he said, a lot of baling contractors have female drivers on the team.

"When you go across the continent, there are a lot of women in this work, I know of women in Holland who are  actually running their own outlets," said Paddy.

Paddy said he has noticed smartphones and social media becoming more and more of a distraction to the job in recent years, but this is not a concern with his female team members whose work ethic, he said, can't be faulted.

"You show them once and that is it," he said.

Back to Amy, who echoed Paddy's views about contractors giving female drivers a chance:

"I love being out on the road, especially when the sun is shining. It is different, it doesn't feel like any other job, it doesn't feel like work. You are just enjoying yourself. And always having the craic with each other too."