Success for two Cavan men at Young Farmer of the Year awards

Any farmer will tell you there are good days and bad days in farming. This year, farmers had to contend with drought, increasing stock and feed prices, decreasing milk prices, amongst other obstacles. And now many are looking skywards wondering if it will dry up for just a few days to get a final cut done before winter.

Despite the challenges, two Cavan farmers were recently recognised when they came out on top in their categories at the 2026 Young Farmer of the Year Awards; one also achieved runner up for the overall award. Certainly a good day.

Cross native Charlie Smyth won the runner up FBD Young Farmer of the Year award, while also placing first in the Drystock Category. Meanwhile, Corlurgan’s Patrick Breslin won in the Career Farm Management Category.

Sponsored by FBD and run by Macra na Feirme in partnership with IFA and Macra Agricultural Skillnet, it’s a big deal.

For Charlie, to be nominated was a “great opportunity”, and to come home with two awards was a huge honour.

After taking over his own family farm in 2019, Charlie is an advocate for encouraging young people to enter farming.

“If we want young people to come in, they are going to have to see that this is an attractive industry, and they can win awards if they put their own ideas into practice.”

While he admits farming can be “difficult” at times, he insists it offers a “lovely lifestyle”.

“It’s a bit like any business; it can be as good or as bad as you want it to be.”

He’s walking through a herd of around 40 dairy calf to beef heifers as he speaks to the Celt. His cattle, who are grazing lush green grass on a hill overlooking Killinkere, don’t bat an eyelid as we walk around them. They’re used to human company, and when Charlie calls them for the photo you see on this page, they come instantly.

As one of 15 country-wide members of Teagasc’s DairyBeef 500 campaign, and also the Signpost Programme, many researchers, students and farm groups visit the farm. Last year, a farm walk saw 700 people gather at the Smyth farm to learn how Charlie successfully converted the former dairy farm into a thriving beef enterprise. Last Thursday, farmers from Poland visited, while he often takes on students who work on the beef farm and their free-range poultry farm, a few miles away. He also has his own contracting business.

For every person who goes into dairy calf to beef farming, many will drop out after around five years as it is a “high cost input” sector.

“It is expensive. People always wonder how we can do it, so that’s why they are interested. People would like to do it, it’s just the costs involved,” Charlie explains.

“It takes so long to get into it, I suppose that’s why there’s such a big drop off.

“When we got into it back in 2019 and 2020, the circumstances in Ireland were a lot different. Calves were a lot cheaper than they are today.”

The seventh generation farmer started in dairy beef after finishing college - Ballyhaise College, Dundalk Institute of Technology and University College Dublin.

“I had experience growing up on a dairy farm but a dairy calf to beef farm is slightly different. The biggest aspect of it is that you need to buy all your calves, you have to approach farmers and marts.”

He started “slow” and gradually built up his herd from 40 calves to 120 over the years but due to “poor genetics” and “longer finishing times” he said there were “problems” in the early days which needed to be addressed. Initially, he bought calves from different sources, which led to disease outbreaks.

The 34-year-old went down the path of tailoring a vaccination programme to suit their animals, something they now use every year “because it works.” Other actions saw them extend their grazing season, implement a three day rotational paddock system, strip graze, and invest in new slatted sheds and meal silos.

They now have a system of buying 120 calves and finishing 120 from the previous cycle every year.

“Today there are farms including ourselves that are clearing €1,500 a hectacre.

“We really just grew year on year because we listened to the advice and the research that has been done, while they [Teagasc] were using our farm as a research platform. It’s been a really good success story.

“Calves are constantly thriving,” he reports.

Patrick also had an interest in farming from a tender age. Having grown up on a farm one of three brothers, each of them pitched in with chores on their part time dairy heifer and calf to beef farm. However, since Patrick started managing a 500 cow crossbred spring-calving dairy farm in Meath, he can’t be around as much.

This year, the drought was a challenge he and four other staff members had to overcome on the farm.

“We had to eat some of our winter silage stocks. We were lucky enough that we made a lot of silage in the first and second cut and we bought in a lot of concentrates.

“It was a costly process but the main aim is to keep the cow well fed no matter what the cost. It has to be done.”

As a result, they will try to get another silage cut in before the winter. This is where the 24-year-old, and many farmers now in a similar situation, becomes a forecaster of sorts.

“By the end of this week they’re talking about a bit of high pressure coming, so hopefully it does. We’re banking on it, it will have to be cut at some stage.”

He’s sitting at his kitchen table at home in Corlurgan now. Until the weather picks up, it’s relatively calm at the Meath farm, however come Spring he will be there seven days a week calving 500 cattle between January 28 and April 1.

“You’re there, you put your shoulder to the wheel and get as much done as you can. If you have a good Spring on the farm you set yourself up for the year. It sets you right for breeding and everything else.”

Patrick got into farm management after studying agricultural science in UCD, after which he went to England where he looked after a dairy farm of 1,500 cattle. He then went to New Zealand to work on a dairy farm there too. This work abroad was recognised at home, and Patrick’s previous employer recommended him to a Corkman who had a farm in Meath.

“I started up there as assistant farm manager and moved up to farm manager.”

Farming on a large scale for himself is an ambition Patrick is “chasing”.

“Hopefully in the future, I’m always looking for the right opportunity. I’m very lucky that the lads I am working for are very open, they are more than happy to assist me with that [goal].”

He hopes that winning the farm management award will help him with this ambition.

“It was great to win it. It’s a good way of getting your name out there as a farm manager for different opportunities in the future to go farming in my own right.”