In the last week, I’ve had the pleasure of attending two events that would give you belief, hope and inspiration in the future of farming amidst the noisy challenges the industry is taking on. On Saturday, thirty-two young handlers from all over Ireland took part in the All Ireland Young Stockperson Championship final at the Cappamore Show in County Limerick.

We were lucky enough to be able to partner with FBD and the Irish Shows Association in showcasing the young farming enthusiasts that had qualified for Cappamore.

An exceptional lady from Armagh, Molly Bradley took home the senior competition top prize.

Molly had travelled with her grandfather through Storm Betty to get to Cappamore, leaving her milking cows behind, to be assessed by the judges on her farming experience and skillset. She was still in the Limerick field at 6pm on Saturday evening like all the other contestants that still had work to do when they eventually got home.

The dedication, hard work, and passion shone through in every word she uttered. While walking a pedigree beef calf around the show ring is the hobby and social outlet, producing seasonal milk from grazed grass for Dale Farm is keeping the show on the road. Molly was in good company with her fellow contestants. I met some exceptional characters, young and old, all on their own but different paths in their farming career.

Some were just starting out in primary education while others were half way through university education. The common strand was the effort, hard work and belief they have in food, farming and rural Ireland.

To see Molly’s fellow contestants come up one after another and congratulate her afterwards spoke volumes about Molly and the young people involved in our great industry.

FBD Young farmer competition

On Tuesday the awards ceremony for the FBD Young Farmer of the Year, in association with Macra, took place in Sligo. Again, fifteen young farmers from all over Ireland stood up to be counted as ambassadors for food and farming.

Avid sheep farmer, Donegal’s Dwayne Shiels took the overall top prize and another exceptional talent was crowned. Dwayne has joined an illustrious list of previous winners and eight of the previous twenty-four winners joined us on Tuesday night.

Each previous winner said a few words about why recognition of good work is so important at a young, developmental stage in a career. As players in that journey, we all need to recognise that and not let some policymakers that know very little about rural Ireland dictate our path.

Again, as FBD boss Tomás Ó Midheach rightly said, these young people were with us because of the advice and guidance from parents that believed in farming and rural Ireland.

Last year’s winner Christopher Tuffy in his handover speech crystallised this very well when he said his parents had given him enough encouragement and leeway to see a future in farming while keeping enough rope to pull him back from crashing out.

It is a lovely way to put it and sums up nicely the influence that our parents have on us and on our industry. Sometimes as an industry we are our own worst enemy and talk ourselves down and talk our young people out of farming.

Anyone that was in the field in Cappamore or the hotel in Sligo could have nothing but admiration for the industry and young people involved.

Yes, I saw plenty of rural and farming challenges while on tour in Sligo prior to and after Tuesday night, but let’s leave that for another day. Nothing should take from the talent, calibre, the innovation, and the youthful energy of the 47 young people from both events this week.

All contestants amplify the depth of talent that careers in food and farming are capable of producing.

The solutions are and will be there to keep rural Ireland thriving. Yes we are experiencing a dearth of enthusiasm and direction from our policy leaders at the moment but that will come, it must come.

Our people are our best asset. The FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition is celebrating 25 years this year and a number of the past winners were present at this year’s awards ceremony.

It is clear the awards were a stepping stone for developing great people, and it is clear that Macra has a significant role in developing the life skills of so many young farmers.

We congratulate Armagh’s Molly Bradley and Donegal’s Dwayne Shiels, we are lucky to have you as part of our industry.