Aileen Sheehan, a teacher and dairy farmer from Co. Cork, has been farming for the last four years alongside her husband Philip O'Leary.

Along with both working full-time and farming, the couple are also trying to juggle parenthood with the arrival of a young baby earlier this year.

Despite this busy schedule, in September, Aileen was named as the prestigious FBD Young Farmer of the Year 2025, marking a historic moment for the competition as the first woman winner in the competition's 27-year history.

Aileen milks 140 dairy cows on a 100% leased farm, managing 28 in-calf heifers and 24 calves as replacements.

She began farming in December 2021 after leasing a dairy unit in Whitechurch, Co. Cork, purchasing a herd, and starting milk supply, and in 2023 she introduced her own heifers.

Award winner

We spoke to Aileen to find out how she is balancing farm life since winning the award.

She said: "Philip and I come from industries where they worked strict enough hours. We live 20 minutes away from farm and we’re very strict on that - we are gone out of here at 6p.m.

"We’ve it well-shared, the labour between myself and my husband, and we have milkers four evenings a week, all locals - either past pupils of mine or connections to the farm.

"So we've three part-time staff here and it's a really simple system; we have our cows, we don't do any tractor work, it's all contracted.

"We have our in-calf heifers and we have our calves on a separate block, and I do that on my way to school or on my way back every day."

Young farmers

When asked what advice she would give to young people starting out in farming, Aileen outlined that the main obstacle at the moment is knowledge, and the know-how on how to run a really good business.

She explained: "You either learn that [knowledge] off working for someone, or getting experience and then really upskilling in what you want to do.

"Discipline is going to be your next thing. It’s not pretty at the start and that is going to be the biggest problem for young farmers trying to get in.

"Where is your backing going to come from? That’s a lot of money to be investing at the start."

The Young Farmer of the Year competition, which is sponsored by FBD Insurance, celebrates the best and brightest of Ireland's young farming community.

The competition spotlights farm business initiative and innovation, levels of farm efficiency and enterprise quality, farm safety, environmental protection awareness, and agricultural knowledge.