'I was in the mart and there were two people under the age of 30. It was me and a friend'

It is no wonder that for many young people in rural areas, it can feel like there is nobody left.

“Nearly every month you could go to a going away party. Usually they’re joint going-away parties which is even worse,” said Liam Garry, who farms outside Kells, Co Meath.

“I was in the mart and I looked around and there were two people under the age of 30. It was me and a friend.

“During the summertime, there should be younger farmers there, but not a sign of them at all.

“There’s no encouragement for them to get in. I am worried about it, to tell you the truth.” 

Getting young people interested in agriculture and wanting to pursue a career in it is a “major issue” the industry faces, Robert Corroon, education and events officer with Agri Aware has warned.

There are other industries with “far more attractive” pay scales, and food production is “a 24/7 responsibility, the primary level of our industry never stops”.

“If we take the primary level of our sector, the farmers who supply our industry are suffering with price volatility, climate volatility, workforce volatility and ultimately decreased profit margins which makes it very hard to entice any young person to pursue a career, let alone the changes in policy and regulation,” Mr Corroon said.

“I think farming as an occupation is a vocation - what we’re seeing is more and more people involved in industry are farming part-time because of the love they have for the industry, their community, their livestock.

“But to provide a steady income to sustain in the current cost of living they’re undertaking careers in agri-food sectors which provide a reliable income and scope for progress in their career while also maintaining their interest in farming at a primary level.

“It’s very hard to entice someone into that space if they don’t have the love for it and haven’t grown up with the love for it and had someone nourish that love for the industry in them.

“Those are the challenges we’re going to have to overcome, and it’s not a silver bullet solution.” 

Edward Treanor farms in Clones, Co Monaghan, in partnership with his father, and is married with two children.

“The farm went from 80 cows to 200 cows now, that would have been one of my main aims to go away off to New Zealand first,” according to Mr Treanor.

He studied mechanical engineering and worked in Dublin for a while, and “got fed up sitting in an office looking out the window”.

“From there I went and did the green cert and went to New Zealand to learn and educate myself on how to grow a sustainable grass-based system," he explained.

“I was there for six to eight months, went from there to Australia, was working there for an Irish fella who lived very close to us at home in the next town over.

“I worked for him for a number of months, then just worked on a number of different farms in Australia over a six or seven-month timeframe.

“I did a lot of travelling in Australia and then would have moved into the city where I met Trisha and then lived there for another three years and we moved home in 2018.” 

He “always knew” he would come back to the family farm, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing since he returned.

“Price on paper for milk looks good but in reality it’s not, the cost of production has just been through the roof,” Mr Treanor said.

“The environment side of things, the rules and regulations that are coming in at the minute are very intense, the goalposts are continuously changing. A rule could come in tomorrow and we wouldn’t know about it today.

“When I came home then in 2018 there was not overly much talk about the rules but if there’s someone now over in Australia or New Zealand working on a farm and thinking of coming home to rural Ireland and trying to grow the farm to have a farm that can sustain families, it’s very hard for someone to put a plan in place to come home when the rules are continuously changing.

“With the uncertainty around what may happen with the derogation, potentially losing it would cause a massive ripple effect across the agriculture industries.

“If you’re going to have to cut cow numbers, can that young person come home from the other part of the world to work in partnership with parents on a farm, to live in rural Ireland and stay locally?"

Mr Treanor said he was always encouraged, and would always encourage others to go and travel.

However, he has friends in Australia who stayed there when he returned home to Ireland, and many similar to them now wonder, “If I come home, what’s there for me?”.

“There’s a lot you don’t realise when you stay out of the country for more than two or three years, what problems you come home and face; getting insurance for cars, bank loans.

“The Government needs to look at that - if they want people to come back, there has to be incentives there, to lower the rules and have exceptions.”

For Mr Treanor, the life he built in Ireland made any challenges he faced worthwhile. 

"Cost of living in rural Ireland is slightly cheaper than living in the city or built-up areas, and then working in the outdoors and being your own boss as well, you can see the effort you put into something is the effort you get back," he said.

"The satisfying thing about it is we’re producing food for other people across the whole world. The cows we would have milked this morning, in time, could be feeding someone butter in America or Australia."

And this production is done in as much an environmentally friendly way as possible, Mr Treanor added.

This is a message Agri Aware is also trying to get across, as it was founded with the aim of educating the general public, the consumer base, on where food comes from and how food is produced, Robert Corroon explained.

Liam Garry farms in partnership with his father, milking 90 cows. They keep sucklers and beef cattle as well, and fatten store lambs over the winter.

The 22-year-old said it has been a “very tough year”.

“We thought last year was tough at the time, but the cash flow this year has been very poor,” Mr Garry explained.

“With the weather, everything is so behind, cattle didn’t get out until very late.

“We ran out of silage last winter and had to buy silage, and usually we would have carry-over silage from the previous year but we started with nothing this year so we’re taking every chance we get to make a few bales here and there.” 

Between those challenges, and “not getting much support from the Department of Agriculture” and receiving late payments, along with the farm being affected by TB, “it’s very hard to keep the morale high”, Mr Garry said.

“The red tape, the regulations are getting tighter and tighter,” he said.

“We’re lucky enough we’re not in nitrates derogation but I do know from other farmers and neighbours which are in it that it’s even worse again.” 

According to Mr Garry, “you wouldn’t be surprised” young people are leaving the country, to get away from the often “hardship” on farms.

He doesn’t rule out travelling and living abroad himself one day, but also, he said he is still “happy here”.

“You can’t be just worrying yourself too much. It is tough, and you’d just be saying 'who’s better off?'. But I’m happy farming here, it’s not really a job as such,” he said.

“You can come and go, if you don’t get something done today you can do it tomorrow or if I need a day off tomorrow to go away somewhere I can just go, I’m not looking for days off. We have some part-time relief for when we’re away but it’s just myself and my father on the farm full-time.

“It’s a lovely lifestyle, you’re out and about, you’re outside every day, you’re up early in the morning seeing nature the whole time.” 

Mr Garry said, however, he is “worried about people leaving and not coming back” and the future of rural Ireland being under threat.

Agri Aware provides a suite of programmes for both primary and secondary schools that hone in on food production, animal welfare, food security and the environment, with over 140,000 students participating in in-class programmes and over 90,000 participating in online programmes at primary level.

Mr Corroon said these programmes are important in engaging young people with agriculture, and allowing them to envision a future in the sector, especially those who would have no other exposure. 

Increases in participation in programmes have been seen in the metropolitan regions of Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Limerick, and another portion of the programme uptake in the commuter towns of these cities, Mr Corroon said.

"Teachers recognise the importance of teaching children where their food comes from, ensuring that we’re supporting local and understanding the role of the farmer in the economy and in their community," he said.

While students can be exposed to a "negative narrative around agriculture" particularly when it comes to environmental impact, Mr Corroon said it is important industry works together to "combat any misinformation that is getting out there with the facts that are backed up by science, backed up by research".

Negative messaging and policy changes are two key reasons why people still feel "disheartened" about their futures in the sector, according to Macra.

When young farmers try to see this future, only a “fog of uncertainty” is visible, Macra president Elaine Houlihan said.

“They have nowhere to turn, they don’t know what their future entails. Do they need to go back to college at the age of 30? Do they need to go do an apprenticeship? How are they going to survive?

“There’s so much uncertainty because the goalpost keeps moving – the goalpost is on wheels that just keep moving up and down the field.

“If only young people could look into that crystal ball and see 10 years down the line that you can farm here in Ireland.

“But you can’t at the moment – all that you’re seeing is a fog of uncertainty.

“It’s time that our Government and the older generation realise that the young farmer will adapt to changes that are needed.”