FRS Co-Op and VistaMilk announce PhD research partnership
FRS Co-Op and VistaMilk Research Ireland Centre have reached a collaboration agreement to support a PhD doctorate to investigate employment dynamics in Irish dairy farming.
The doctorate will focus on areas such as productivity, technology and generational renewal.
The multi-year programme will involve research on how employee experiences, farm-level human resource management practices, and technology interact on Irish dairy farms.
The PhD will also look at the economic contribution of hired labour on dairy farms, as both a cost and a "strategic input that can drive productivity and profitability".
The research for the PhD thesis will be overseen through the VistaMilk Research Ireland Centre, which is hosted by Teagasc at its Moorepark campus in Co. Cork.
The funding for the PhD programme is being provided by FRS Co-Op.
Both VistaMilk and FRS Co-Op said that the increasingly competitive labour market is adding to traditional challenges for Irish dairy farms in recruiting and retaining skilled workers.
They said that structured management of people is "relatively underdeveloped" on Irish farms, where staff development, performance evaluation, and employee retention practices are "not yet widely or consistently applied".
The PhD doctorate will focus on the "evolving nature" of employment on Irish dairy farms.
The schedule of research work for the PhD doctorate will commence in quarter four (Q4) 2025 with a final thesis to be published by 2029.
Commenting on the new doctorate, Neil Keane, head of agriculture for FRS Co-Op, said: "The expansion of Irish dairy over the last decade has seen many farms become increasingly reliant on employed labour to handle the increased workload.
"However, the economic value of employed labour is often underappreciated and generally framed as a cost to be minimised on farms.”
Prof. Donagh Berry, director of VistaMilk, commented: "By exploring how workforce practices and technology interact, this PhD will deliver evidence-based insights to help farms improve productivity, job satisfaction and long-term sustainability."
Also commenting on the PhD, Prof. Frank O'Mara, director of Teagasc, said "Farms have changed significantly in recent decades as scale has increased, seasonal labour demands have intensified, and workplace expectations continue to evolve."
"Attracting, developing and retaining skilled people is vital to strengthen competitiveness, enhance farming's attractiveness as a career, and secure the long-term environmental sustainability of the sector," Prof. O'Mara added.
