Ensuring the next generation has the passion and opportunity to farm

Supporting the long-term sustainability of the beef and sheep sectors in Ireland is the name of the game of the new Young Farmer Forum.

Launched last April by Kepak in partnership with Musgrave, including SuperValu and Musgrave Marketplace, it is a follow-on from last year’s Young Sheep Farmer Forum.

Aoife Mahony took part in last year’s programme and is now vice chair of the Young Farmer Forum.

“The whole group is about making sure that this next generation not only has the passion to farm, but the opportunity to do it as well,” she told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Aoife is from a sheep and suckler farm in Killimor, Co Galway where she and her sister help their dad out with the farm. She is also carrying out a PhD as a Teagasc Walsh scholar in Moorepark looking at ewe longevity and survival.

“Both as a farmer and working in my job, it was great to see the different opinions and the different type of knowledge that every farmer was bringing to the table.”

Last year the young sheep farmer forum came up with some recommendations which it presented to the Oireachtas committee on agriculture, one of which Aoife described as a “succession or retirement scheme”.

“The most important part is that you’re not trying to push out a generation to let the young farmers in, a farmer doesn’t clock out at 65.”

“There’s a lot of talks over the definition of an active farmer, I think that’s something that needs to be looked at in the eyes of a young farmer, where they might be working part time or full time, but still completely engaging in farming.”

Aoife said her dad would not be at the point of retiring yet, but he has a big focus that Aoife and her sister should get out and educate themselves and experience other sides of farming. In terms of having a succession plan in place at home, she said “there is no particular rush on us just at the moment, but it’s fair play between both myself and my sister, we’re probably not just at that mark just yet.

“Maybe it’s a possibility that we could both be part-time and working together when it comes to farming. All those things are still up for discussion and you have to see how life plays out as well.”

Career with sheep

For Michael Feeley from Elphin, Co Roscommon, who is now chair of the Young Farmer Forum, it was the first time in his life that he was in a room with 13 other young farmers who were keen on pursuing a career with sheep.

Michael helps out on his home sheep and suckler farm with his dad and brother and he also works full-time off-farm as an adviser with Teagasc.

One of the highlights of the forum last year for Michael was the group’s trip to Rungis in France.

“Just to see the scale and the logistics involved in getting the product out there and how it’s sold and presented to customers.” Another recommendation from the forum last year was to have young farmer panels who would have more input into schemes, Michael explained.

“Some of the rules and regulations in the schemes we feel could be made to suit us a bit better and make it more viable for us going forward.

“With this new CAP we want to emphasise that they’re on about increasing from I think it’s 6% to 8% for young farmers, but it’s from an overall reduced budget. We’d like to see that our careers will be valued and that we wouldn’t be getting less than having to do more for it.”

Michael said he would love to farm at home full time but he doesn’t think it’s going to be possible and that he would need an off-farm job too.

“I suppose we’re lucky, myself and my brother, we have a very good working relationship and we work well with our father.”

Michael said his father supports them both and “he’s already been clear since day one”.

Discussions around succession have been had between them in recent years. “I suppose in the last two or three years, we’re sort of making a shift and meeting people.”

“Supporting Irish farmers is essential to the Musgrave and SuperValu business,” Laura Kennedy sustainability manager at Musgrave said.

She spoke about how they work with a lot of Irish producers and how the long-term success of Irish food really depends on supporting the next generation.

“We have 17 farmers on the forum, they’re not all full-time farmers, some have full-time jobs too. I suppose it’s a vocation and they’re trying to keep the farm going. For me it’s how do we celebrate, recognise and support that dedication.”

She highlighted the importance of having someone lined up to take over the farm and without that supermarkets don’t have products on the shelf.

Partnering with Kepak, the programme is built around succession in terms of the modules and it’s about helping the farmers to set themselves up to have those conversations.

Just a few weeks ago, the forum took a trip to Kepak’s site in Watergrasshill, Co Cork where they got to see everything from the abattoir, boning hall and retail packing line.

The trip then moved on to Musgrave’s chilled depot on Tramore Road where the farmers got to see how the product moves through the warehouse and the importance of traceability of the products. Next, they visited SuperValu in Togher where they got to see the end product at the butcher counter. David the butcher spoke about the quality of the product and what he’s hearing from customers.

“There’s a good cohort coming from different places, different land types and different types of farms, some are working full time, some part time and I think that’s the magic in it that they’re all bringing different perspectives,” she said.

“Playing a role in ensuring that the next generation is ready and passionate about driving the sector is really important,” Mick O’Dowd head of agribusiness at Kepak said.

“In Kepak, we see the shifting in the sand, so to speak, in terms of the average age of farmers, one of the things that jumped out at me was that 64% of farmers don’t have a successor identified.”

He said that by bringing farmers, processors, retailers, and industry together it’s helping young farmers build the skills, networks and confidence needed to lead the sector into the future. Speaking about the forum industry trips, Mick said: “I think what they got from that was they could see all aspects of the supply chain and they realised how vital they were within the supply chain.”

Mick said that he believes it is important that industry is creating these platforms to empower and help young farmers.

“The support of Musgrave, Bord Bia, Mountbellew and all the other industry partners that we’ve been involved in with this is really important.”