Meet the finalists in the Teagasc FBD Environmental Sustainability Awards 2026
Teagasc and FBD have announced the finalists for the Teagasc FBD Environmental Sustainability Awards 2026, celebrating farmers across Ireland who are taking practical actions to improve the environmental sustainability of their farms, while continuing to produce good food profitably.
The Teagasc FBD Environmental Sustainability Awards aims to promote environmentally sustainable farming. The awards highlight the progress farmers are making to lighten the load of farming on the environment, while continuing to produce high quality, nutritious food, in a profitable manner.
This year’s finalists are being recognised for their commitment to areas including greenhouse gas emissions reduction, improving water quality, enhancing biodiversity, improving soil health and farming with innovation.
The standard of entries was exceptionally high, with farmers demonstrating a wide range of innovative and practical approaches to improving the environmental performance of their farms.
Meet the 2026 Finalists
| Name | County | Enterprise |
| Thomas and Peter O’Hanrahan | Kilkenny | Dairy calf to beef |
| John McSweeney |
Cork | Suckler beef |
| Maurice Deasy |
Tipperary | Tillage |
| Philip O’Leary and Aileen Sheehan |
Cork | Dairy |
| Matt Hennessy |
Tipperary | Organic tillage |
| Michael Gleeson |
Kerry | Organic suckler beef |
| William Dennehy |
Kerry | Dairy |
| Aonghusa Fahy |
Galway | Suckler beef |
| Patrick and Kayleigh Durkin | Kildare | Dairy |
| Alan McCann |
Dublin | Horticulture |
The finalists represent a diverse range of Irish farming systems and demonstrate that there is no single approach to improving environmental sustainability. Their work includes actions like reducing reliance on chemical nitrogen, improving nutrient use efficiency, enhancing biodiversity through better hedgerow management and planting trees and new hedges, improving soil fertility, more sustainable breeding practices, best use of the decision support tools available to them and many other actions.
The overall winner of the Teagasc FBD Environmental Sustainability Awards 2026 will be announced at an event in County Laois on Thursday 1st October, alongside the winners of the individual award categories and special recognition awards.
Meet the finalist at https://teagasc.ie/environment/climate-change-air-quality/signpost-programme/sustainability-awards/2026-finalists/