Grass Roots

Kirstie Ward might be a former star of DVDs, driving tractors and hauling silage, but she is happiest when she is behind the wheel of her Scania R560 65-tonner pulling plant machinery

- Chris McCullough

There aren’t many 24-year-olds whose driving skills are known all over the world – except perhaps for Formula 1 drivers – but Kirstie Ward’s are.

Kirstie, who comes from the village of Douglas Bridge in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, gained her fame by featuring in a few DVDs – viewed globally – driving tractors hauling silage and produced by Ballymena film maker Grassmen.

“It all started one day in 2014 when I was carting in silage for a local farm contractor close to home,” Kirstie explains. “This film crew arrived to shoot some footage for a new DVD and they asked if they could film me as well.

“That film crew just happened to be from Grassmen – whose DVDs and video footage is viewed all over the world – and they were there to shoot their latest production.

“Little did I know that viewers – mostly men of all ages – would really take to me as a female driver.

“Usually we get verbally abused for our driving but I received nothing but compliments for my tractor driving.”

Long-standing interest

When Kirstie was growing up on the family dairy farm, she quickly developed an interest for tractor driving, and that progressed later to trucks. Although she initially trained as a veterinary nurse, that interest in driving never waned, so she eventually took her HGV test.

In the year since passing, Kirstie has been behind the wheel of big rigs hauling excavators, trucks, screeners and various other types of plant machinery. Kirstie currently works for JJP Haulage Ltd, based in Dromore, County Down, and her job takes her all around Northern Ireland, onto the UK mainland as well as into the Republic of Ireland.