The enthusiasm, the passion, the willingness to work was oozing out of the contestants at the FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition run by Macra on Tuesday night.

Anyone lucky enough to be present at the awards ceremony would be reinvigorated by the stories of success, hard work, and dedication.

The newly crowned FBD Young Farmer of the Year, Aileen Sheehan summed it up perfectly when she said, “my family are steeped in farming, and, Philip, my husband’s family, are also steeped in farming.

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“Farming is just what we want to do, and what lots of young people want to do – to follow their beliefs and passion. Women can be out in front as much as men and we come from families of strong female leaders.”

Aileen winning this competition is a clear recognition by the competition judges of her technical ability, communication skills, attitude and vision.

For 26 years of this competition, men have taken the top spot. However, Aileen taking the top gong this year is a ringing endorsement and very public recognition that more often than not, it’s women that are the driving force behind so many successful family farms. This recognition might be the cherry on top for Aileen but it is also an important development for all women in agriculture.

In her acceptance speech straight after the announcement, Aileen was quick to share the spoils and recognition with her husband and those that help out on the farm.

She said: “As a teacher and a farmer, I meet and can see huge numbers of young people that love farming and have a passion for farming that needs to be nurtured and developed. We probably have too much help on the farm at the moment, but it works for us and gives us options.”

Significant changes

This work-sharing element of modern farming is one of the more significant changes that was obvious from the farm businesses profiled in the competition.

In many of the farms, there are numerous actors – part-time helpers, contractors, full-time staff, students and often machinery-only operators.

Gone are the days of farm owners doing everything. Real farming traditionalists might raise an eyebrow at this shared workload concept, but young people are managing and adopting modern workloads. They must.

Family farms are busy farms. Shared workload is essential to make modern farming possible as a career and flexible enough to mix with careers off the farm and young growing families.

The other real significant change in the farms and people profiled undoubtedly for the last three years of this competition is the number of young people that are not farming owned land.

They are farming long-term leased or partnership land. Not alone have the two overall winners for the last two years been in this category, but so too were many of shortlisted finalists.

It goes to show the absolute necessity of making land available to good young people who want to make farming a career by choice and not just because they were lucky enough to be born into a farming family.

A further tightening of the nitrates noose by the Department will make it much harder and financially unviable for young people like Aileen and Philip to do what they want in our most important indigenous industry in rural Ireland.

Impact

The Teagasc report lays the impact of the nitrates derogation loss bare for what it is – 200,000 fewer cows in Ireland or find 112,000 hectares that can take nutrients.

So, in a week when we got new TB rules, the economic cost of a nitrates derogation loss and a report on generation renewal, it is young farmers and a room full of passion, enthusiasm and belief that wins the day.

It’s hard to beat the resilience of young, rural people and that’s why we must fight for, believe in and reward the young farmers and food producers in this country.