Christopher Cahill from County Cavan was last night named the 2024 FBD Young Farmer of the Year. Christopher is a 30-year-old dairy farmer and a graduate of the Sustainable Agriculture Master’s degree from UCD.

The evening also saw a number of additional category winners:

David Melody originally from Clare but farming in Kilkenny was named Runner Up and won the Career Farm Management category.

Sarah Kelly of Sligo was named Best Young Entrant.

Martin O’Reilly of Laois was named the winner of the Dairy category and also won the Macra Agricultural Skillnet Biodiversity Young Farmer of the Year award.

Jamie Hannon of Sligo was named the Drystock category winner.

Séamus Leahy won the Other Enterprises category

The aim of the competition is to recognise and reward the top young farmers in the country. Entrants are judged according to a number of criteria including farm business initiative and innovation, levels of farm efficiency and enterprise quality, farm safety and environmental protection awareness, and agricultural knowledge.