A CORK DAIRY farmer found herself drinking the blood of a cow in remote sub-Saharan Africa as part of a new documentary.

Paula Hynes runs a highly successful dairy farm in Aherla in Cork with her husband Peter. The pair picked up the Farmer of the Year title in 2016.

She recently travelled to Kenya to spend two-and-a-half weeks with a remote Maasai tribe.

The Maasai are a distinct ethnic group of pastoralists that inhabit southern Kenya and northern Tanzania.

They are one of the more well known African tribal groups due to the areas they inhabit being close many sites of interest to tourists.

There are many Maasai tourist villages where people can visit to get a sense of their culture.

The Maasai people are famed warriors and also cattle herders.

Paula spent time with them learning their farming techniques and how they farm and survive and subsist on much harsher terrain than Ireland.

She did it as part of the RTÉ’s three-part documentary the Hardest Harvest, the first episode of which airs tonight.

Paula spent her time with the Maasai during a severe drought, and she was unsure if her farming skills would be of any use in such a vastly different terrain.

Increasing urbanisation, as well as climate change and changes in culture in recent years has put the Maasai way of life – which has been ongoing for thousands of years – in jeopardy.

The Hardest Harvest airs tonight on RTÉ One at 9.35pm