{"id":56783,"date":"2025-09-11T07:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/56783\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:24:12","slug":"farms-wouldnt-be-as-successful-without-the-women-behind-them-says-first-woman-named-young-farmer-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/56783\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Farms wouldn\u2019t be as successful without the women behind them,\u2019 says first woman named Young Farmer of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aileen Sheehan is \u2018thrilled to get the recognition\u2019 for her sustainability-focused dairy operation in Co Cork\n<\/p>\n

Cork dairy farmer Aileen Sheehan (34), who also won the dairy \u00adcategory award and the Skillnet Biodiversity Award, is the first female winner in the 27-year history of the FBD-sponsored competition.<\/p>\n

Ms Sheehan, a qualified teacher, runs a dairy farm with her husband Philip O\u2019Leary (35) in Whitechurch, Co Cork, with a strong focus on sustainability.<\/p>\n

The couple began their farming journey in December 2021 after leasing a dairy unit, buying a herd and starting to supply milk.<\/p>\n

Ms Sheehan said she could only have dreamt of winning the award when she started out, adding: \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely fantastic. I\u2019m thrilled to get the recognition from the industry and from all the people who supported us all the way along. It\u2019s just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accepting the award at a \u00adceremony in Naas, Co Kildare, she spoke of the importance of women being visible in the agriculture sector.<\/p>\n

Ms Sheehan said she came from a \u201cbackground of really strong women who have been involved in agriculture\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

We\u2019ve three great staff on the farm who help out with milking and other jobs at the weekend<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cFrom my grandmother, my mother, my mother-in-law, who I would have a very close relationship with. I just see all the work they always do in the background and the men are often out in front,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just think none of these farms are as successful as they can be without the women behind them, and often they\u2019re hidden away in the background, too shy to speak. Their position in the industry is really, really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aileen<\/p>\n

Aileen Sheehan, a dairy farmer and teacher from Cork, has been named the 2025 FBD Young Farmer of the Year. Photo: Daragh McSweeney\/Provision<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Thursday, September 11<\/p>\n

Ms Sheehan and Mr O\u2019Leary, who live in Courtback, a small village 15 minutes from their farm, have an eight-month-old daughter, Katie.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201cvery busy\u201d for the couple, with Ms Sheehan also working as a full-time PE and maths teacher in Blarney and her husband serving in the Army, but they have help from their part-time staff \u2013 Aoife, Sarah and Tadgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve three great staff on the farm who help out with milking and other jobs at the weekend,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re past pupils in my school. I identified different people in my school that maybe were taking a year out, or have an interest in agriculture, or had a space for a job. We\u2019re milking 140 cows, with 28 in-calf heifers and 24 calves.<\/p>\n

\"Aileen<\/p>\n

Aileen Sheehan with the trophy she won<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very simple system, a very much grass-based system \u2013 we try and reduce the amount of feed that comes in through the gate. We try and grow as much grass as we possibly can.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve cross-bred cows \u2013 low-maintenance, which means feed is less than your bigger standard black and white animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about reducing what\u2019s coming through the gate to try and help the environment and try and run a sustainable business. We try and produce the best quality milk we can from the grass that we grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s farm received a Dairygold Milk Quality and Sustainability Award last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s based just on the quality of our milk for the 2024 season, and different environmental measures as well,\u201d Ms Sheehan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the quality of our milk leaving the farm, how clean that milk is, is what you\u2019re judged on, and you\u2019re judged on every single collection. So at no stage can your milk be of bad quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe award was a massive bonus for us because we definitely didn\u2019t think, after three years, we would be anywhere near any awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just basically trying to build a sustainable business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aileen Sheehan is \u2018thrilled to get the recognition\u2019 for her sustainability-focused dairy operation in Co Cork Cork dairy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[7699,79,18,41040,41041,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-56783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-adrianna-wrona","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-farming-dairy-advice","12":"tag-fbd-holdings","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}