Co. Sligo man, Christopher Tuffy, was crowned the FBD Young Farmer of the Year 2022 at the competition's award ceremony at the end of November.

Christopher, who farms alongside his parents and partner Eimear - with whom he has one child, baby Iarlaith - leases a 150ac farm and currently milks 155 cows.

The focus on his dairy farm is very much on grass production and producing milk solids from grass.

In this article, Christopher speaks about his farming experience, what it means to be the FBD Young Farmer of the Year, his hopes for 2022 and what the future might bring.

Christopher comes from a dairy farm near Enniscrone, where his father milked 60 cows. After completing the dairy herd management course at Kildalton Agricultural college, Christopher decided to head to New Zealand.

Then, on his return, he set out to farm on his own.

Due to scale and farm fragmentation, Christopher felt that going home to farm was not an option.

He had originally planned to manage a farm, but when the opportunity for the farm near Silgo town came up he couldn't turn it down.

Christopher credits his father for backing him.

"My father took all the risk; I had nothing to lose, I was only 20 at the time," he said.

His father still plays a major role in the operation, with the calves and heifers reared on the home farm in Enniscrone.

Christopher now milks 155 cows in a spring-calving system, and this year, the herd is expected to produce 495kg of milk solids.

The farm grows 14.8t of grass and around 1t of concentrates is fed/cow.

In 2013 the herd produced 5,000L of milk and 399kg of milk solids, but by increasing percentages Christopher has been able to increase milk solids by 100kg, while L/cow has only increased by 500L.

According to Christopher, this was caused by the herd being stuck between rapid expansion and changing cow type.

"You don't realise it at the time, but it was all worth it as we were putting in a fantastic base for the herd we have now," he said.

Christopher said that the plan for the future is to continue driving efficiency on the farm.

"The plan for 2023 is to increase the clover content in the grazing platform to a minimum of between 40% and 50%," he said.

"We currently have 15% of the platform in grass clover swards. We also have a good supply of silage which will allow us to take out a good portion of the platform for reseeding."

A large number of heifers were kept this year, which meant that Christopher has a bigger replacement rate now than previous years.

Christopher removed some of the less efficient cows and will have a 23% replacement rate this coming year.

The heifers coming in have an economic breeding index (EBI) of €238 which also means that for the first time, a 90% six-week calving rate will be achieved on the farm.

"The six-week calving rate has been frustratingly stuck between 85% and 90%, but with the higher replacement rate we are going to break the 90%," Christopher explained.

The recently introduced carbon index with the EBI has seen the herd EBI increase from €175 to €192, with Christopher herd having a carbon index of €15.

This put his herd in the top 10% of herds for this index.

Commenting on the role of young people in Irish agriculture, Christopher said: "If there are no opportunities for young farmers, who will be willing to use the technologies that are available?

"Like including clover, using protected urea, spreading lime and reducing our carbon footprint," he said.

"Young farmers that are willing to adopt the technologies to reduce emissions should be allowed to drive milk production."

The FBD Young Farmer of the Year competition is now in its 24th year.

Since the first ceremony in 1999, these awards have shone a spotlight on the next generation of farming leadership and talent in Ireland and provided a platform to showcase the work being done by young farmers across the country.

These prestigious accolades are organised annually by Macra na Feirme, supported by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and sponsored by FBD Insurance.

Although not a Macra member, Christopher had seen a number of previous winners from his discussion group and also had a goal of winning the competition.

He is the fourth member from his discussion group West Awake to win the award and first winner from Sligo.

"It is super competition and something that I always was wanted to win. I had seen the trophy in the discussion group, and I always had my eye on it," he said.

"I want to thank FBD and Macra for a super day and it is a very well-organised competition."

Commenting on the winner of the FBD Young Farmer of the Year, Tomás Ó'Midheach, CEO, FBD Insurance said: "On behalf of the team at FBD, I would like to extend our congratulations to Christopher Tuffy.

"This award is very well deserved, it is a testament to Christopher's hard work, passion and dedication.

He said that FBD is proud to support awards which celebrate the achievements of our young farmers and their contribution to farming.

"Our hope is that these awards will inspire the next generation of farmers to build strong and sustainable farm businesses for the future," Ó'Midheach said.

For more information on the FBD Young Farmer of the Year 2022 in association with Macra na Feirme, click here.