Meet the new generation of farmers adapting to an evolving world: ‘It’s a very different way of farming’

From the runaway popularity of Clarkson’s Farm to ‘FarmTok’ and our fascination with the Ploughing Championships, it seems society has developed a new appreciation for life on the land.

But behind the TikToks, television cameras, and welly-throwing Guinness World Record attempts, a new generation of farmers are confronting climate pressures, changing policy, rising costs and the challenge of making farming pay.R

At a time when many people are becoming increasingly removed from where their food comes from, today’s young farmers are embracing new enterprises and utilising digital platforms to educate and inform, rewriting the rules of what it means to be a farmer.

Jack Skehan, a dairy and beef farmer from Waterford, was building a career as a process engineer travelling and working abroad in Idaho, Saudi Arabia, and Australia when he returned to his father’s farm last spring. Initially, the plan was just to help his father “take a step back” as he approached retirement.

Jack Skehan with dairy cows on his farm at Ballinamult Co. Waterford. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

“Farmers don’t retire,” he acknowledges, but he would lessen the load for his father, and help build their 70-strong milking herd.

Then his father became ill.

“When the father got sick, I made it my business to get to 100 cows,” Skehan says. “It probably wasn’t a smart thing to do… but at that stage it was more sentiment.”

By the end of the year, Skehan’s father had passed, and he found himself responsible for the family farm, alongside his mother.

The reality was very different from the idea of it, he says.

“There’s barely anyone around during the day, especially my age,” he says. There is also little room for ‘clocking off’.

“It is your life,” he says simply.

The responsibility is part of what keeps him going –his father had inherited the farm from his own father and built it up; now it is Skehan’s turn and he wants to leave the place “in a better condition”.

Farming is very much about the practice, not the theory, he feels, but a good support network and connections with other farmers are crucial.

Jack Skehan with a calf on his farm at Ballinamult Co. Waterford. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

When an outbreak of Mortellaro – a highly contagious bacterial skin infection that affects the hooves of cattle – occurred within Skehan’s herd, he reached out to other farmers in the local area for help.

“I learned fairly lively from my mistakes,” he says.

Skehan, who is involved in the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Ready-to-Lead programme, which offers him an opportunity to connect with other young people in the agricultural community, fears the profession is “a dying trade” with land costs, economic pressures and global competition from the likes of Brazil and Uruguay all major barriers to young farmers trying to get a foot in the door.

“It’s very, very hard for a young farmer to start on your own now,” he says. “Fertiliser and land prices are high, and beef prices are down.”

He has had to take a forward-thinking approach to ensure his farm stays profitable. After years of developing a pedigree Wagyu herd, he recently began selling the beef directly to customers through his business, West Waterford Wagyu.

His first cuts sold out, and the business had already attracted almost 2,000 Instagram followers within weeks of launching.

“It’s a very different way of farming,” he acknowledges, but the direct-to-consumer approach is clearly attractive in a world where so many of us are so disconnected from our food. (Recent research from Our Food Roots indicates just one in ten people in Ireland now have a direct connection to a farm).

Sophie Bell, a third generation beef and dairy farmer from Cavan, sees an opportunity in that disconnect. Since entering into a partnership with her father in 2022, she has transformed their Virgina farm from a traditional beef enterprise into a contract-rearing business, raising young dairy and beef animals for other farmers.

A third generation beef and dairy farmer from Virginia, Co Cavan, Sophie Bell is part of a new wave of Irish women agri-influencers narrating the vocation in real time.

But, she has also forged a career in content creation, bringing life on the farm to more than 50,000 followers on TikTok (@sophie_bell__) and a further 100,000 on Instagram (@sophie_bell__). She also uses the platforms as an advocacy tool for young and female farmers.

“It creates a bit of a social scene, and you’re allowed to voice things that might not get spoken about,” she says.

I’m able to speak on behalf of young farmers and also women farmers. It’s been brilliant.

She has great ambitions for her farm, exploring the possibility of creating a boutique retreat, where visitors could stay on the farm, experience rural life and engage with Irish farm products, tapping into a growing desire many consumers have to reconnect with nature. Part of that vision would include promoting and featuring Irish farm products such as dairy, organic or Irish wool products to visitors.

For Peter Thompson from Carrigaline, the appeal of farming is simple; “Most days, I’m happy to be in the yard.”

But he wasn’t always sure farming was the future he wanted.

Farmer Peter Thompson hoses down his new milking parlour at his farm in Aghamarta, Carrigaline, Co. Cork. Picture: Noel Sweeney.

At its peak, the Thompsons’ family farm was a 200-milking-cow operation. But following his father’s death a decade ago, the farm began winding down and ceased dairying seven years ago, with the remaining herd being sold.

Thompson studied Commerce at University College Cork and, in 2024, began contract-rearing young heifers for another farmer. It gave him a way to test the waters without immediately taking on the enormous financial commitment of running a dairy enterprise.

Then he got hooked.

“Once I got into the contract rearing… I just started getting more and more interested in it,” the 23-year-

old says.

He completed a part-time Green Cert and decided to start again. This spring, after buying stock and installing a new parlour, he began milking for the first time in seven years.

His first year has involved plenty of learning on the job. His young herd were all calving for the first time, including one cow that required a successful C-section, an experience that brought home the responsibility involved in the business he had chosen.

“Calving and calf rearing is a big one… it really was throwing myself in at the deep end,” he says.

There have been difficult days, but there has also been the satisfaction of seeing something that had disappeared from the family farm return.

One of the biggest milestones was receiving his first milk cheque — which he immediately put back into the business to pay the bills.

Farmer Peter Thompson: ‘There’s a huge quality of young farmers out there keen to farm’ Picture: Noel Sweeney.

Despite the long hours and financial pressures, Thompson says there are many benefits to being able to build a working life around your own farm.

“You can pick your own hours… you can be fully employed on your own farm.”

It is important, however, to ensure you are surrounded by a support system, he says.

Thompson is part of two Teagasc discussion groups and is active in the local Macra, connecting him with other young farmers, and he also has had a support system in his family.

“My mother helped me set up and get going. She’s been a great support… and my brother does relief milking on the weekends,” he says, allowing him to take a break from the yard and maintain a life beyond the land too.

Thompson believes the young people entering the industry now are better equipped than ever, pointing to the number with degrees and formal qualifications.

“There’s a huge quality of young farmers out there keen to farm… Most young farmers now have a level 8 degree… they’re educated, they’re clued in.”

While their paths vary, all three young farmers have inherited farms shaped by the generations before them, but none is simply preserving what was there.

Whether developing a new market, rethinking a traditional system or rebuilding a dairy enterprise, each is finding a way to make farming work on their own terms while leaving the land in better condition than they found it.