Passionate young people are essential to the long-term future of the Irish dairy industry. Without them, there will be no industry.
Fortunately, these young people are out there and at Dairy Day 2026, we will be hearing from three of them.
Kicking off our Inside the Farmgate stage will be an exciting panel discussion on pathways for the next generation of dairy farmers.
On the day, Daire Cregg will be joined by three young farmers, Andrew Doyle, Aoife Dullea and Darragh Scully, who are all operating under different arrangements and will be outlining their journeys to date.
High land prices, access to finance and the level of investment required to set up a dairy enterprise are just some of the challenges facing people looking to make a career in the industry.
Despite what could be perceived as roadblocks, there are young people finding different ways to get established, whether that’s through family succession, leasing land, farm partnerships or other such arrangements.
The first of the three farmers is Andrew Doyle. Andrew is 32 years old and hails from a drystock farm in Roundwood, Co Wicklow. Growing up, he always had a big interest in agriculture and had long planned to go on and forge a career in the industry.
He was passionate about dairy farming and intended to go on and study agriculture in UCD after his Leaving Cert.
Andrew narrowly missed out on the points required for general agriculture. However, this didn’t stop him. He decided to continue on to UCD and study a degree in forestry. This would provide him with an opportunity to get a Level 8-degree, experience student life and keep his hand in the agricultural sector.
Despite the four years studying forestry, Andrew wasn’t keen to give up the dream of dairy farming and, after completing his degree in UCD, he went on to Teagasc Moorepark for the dairy farm management course.
The farm management course was run over two years, with the majority of the time spent out on farm placements. Andrew learnt a lot in those two years and considers the farmers he worked for to be key mentors in his journey.
The practical element of the course also helped him to learn and experience the key fundamentals required to run a sustainable dairy business. After a stint managing a farm in Meath following graduation and a year in New Zealand working with well-known dairy farmers Will and Kim Grayling, Andrew stumbled across an opportunity closer to home. In late 2025, he was offered a management role on a 77ha dairy farm near Bunclody, Co Wexford. The farm was already operating under a share-farming arrangement, with the original share-farmer looking to step back.
Andrew took on the role, aware of the potential room for growth, and has now been managing the farm for close to a year alongside his fiancée Emma Gilsenan, who works off-farm full time.
He is currently in the process of taking over as the share-farmer, with the original share-farmer gradually phasing out.
The farm operates with a 69ha milking platform and calved down 210 cows in spring 2026. The herd is crossbred and Andrew’s goal is to produce as much milk as possible through good grassland management combined with good genetics.
On the day, Andrew will share his perspective on taking the path less travelled into a dairy farming role, what he learnt in New Zealand, how he went about identifying opportunities and the challenges involved in starting a share-farming arrangement.
With a very different story to our other two panellists, Aoife Dullea had never really envisaged a career in dairy farming.
However, after losing her younger brother in tragic circumstances in early 2024, Aoife felt compelled to return home and assist her parents in the running of their 120-cow dairy farm.
Since then, she has been working part-time at home while also keeping up a full-time job in a factory in her local town of Clonakilty.
While Aoife had always been involved in the family farm, becoming the person in charge of the day-to-day running was a step in at the deep end and one which required getting up to speed quickly. In spring 2026, she officially joined the farm partnership with her parents, Charles and Aileen, after months of paperwork and succession planning.
Today, the farm is operating across a 49ha milking platform. They are milking a herd of crossbred cows and are planning to increase cow numbers next spring, moving to calve 135 cows in total.
Aoife’s partner, Tom Hayes, is also involved in the running of the farm part-time while working full-time off-farm with ArraTipp. The couple are expecting their first child early next year.
The Dullea family’s farm is situated in prime dairy country, with all of the neighbouring land tied up in milk production. The lack of opportunity to lease land or take on another farm is therefore a big limitation to the growth potential of the farm business.
On the day, Aoife will share her experience of stepping into the family farm business, the challenges of balancing her full-time job off-farm with her role on-farm, as well as her journey so far in terms of succession, unsuccessful attempts at purchasing land and getting access to finance.
Her story is an inspiring one and one not to be missed at Dairy Day 2026.
The final panellist is Darragh Scully, a 29-year-old dairy farmer from Kilavullen, Co Cork, whose story eagle-eyed readers may recognise from the dairy pages a couple of months back. Darragh has a unique story establishing himself in the indsutry through a collaborative arrangement, despite not coming from a farming background.
Growing up, Darragh always had a big interest in agriculture, working on neighbouring dairy farms during weekends and school holidays. His uncle also farmed in Co Clare, and from an early age, he knew dairy farming was the career he wanted to pursue.
After secondary school, he went on to study agricultural science at Munster Technological University (MTU) in Cork. As part of the course, he completed work experience with Shane and Sinead Horgan, dairy farmers from Carrignavar, Co Cork.
However, Darragh found the academic side of the course wasn’t for him and decided to change direction, enrolling in the Professional Diploma in Dairy Herd Management.
The two-year course involved placements on a number of dairy farms in Ireland and New Zealand, giving him valuable experience of different farming systems and helping him decide what type of dairy business he wanted to operate.
After completing the course, Darragh kept in contact with Shane and Sinead Horgan, and the three began looking for an opportunity to establish a dairy farming partnership.
In 2019, they came across a 93ha farm near Liscarroll, Co Cork, with a 77ha milking platform and good existing facilities.
The partnership was initially established on an 80:20 basis, reflecting the capital each party brought into the business. Shane and Sinead also guaranteed a loan to allow the partnership to purchase cows.
The farm began supplying milk in September 2019 and has since grown to milking 240 crossbred cows in a grass-based system.
Over the years, Darragh has gradually built up his share of the stock, machinery and infrastructure, with the partnership now operating on a 50:50 profit-sharing arrangement.
For Darragh, one of the biggest advantages of the partnership has been the opportunity to run the farm himself while having the experience and support of Shane and Sinead to fall back on.
The arrangement has also allowed him to develop a good work-life balance, with two full-time people working on the farm and relief milkers helping to cover weekends.
Alongside his partner Claire, Darragh is keen to build a profitable dairy business that also allows time for life outside farming.
On the day, Darragh will share his experience of getting established without a family farm, how the partnership has developed over time, the importance of finding the right people to work with and the opportunities that partnerships can offer young people looking to enter the dairy industry.
