Farmers Weekly Awards 2026: Young Farmer of the Year

Successful farming requires innovation and strategic thinking, qualities dairy farmer Joe Lyall, of High Oaks Farm, Cumbria, is demonstrating at just 22 years old. 

Before Joe had graduated from university he had secured the strongest possible milk price for the family-run business, adding around £30,000/year to farm income.

See also: FW Awards: Meet the 2026 Young Farmer of the Year finalists

But he doesn’t take sole credit for this, acknowledging his good fortune in having strong role models to lay strong foundations for his farming career. 

“My father is an exceptional stockman and a lot of what we have achieved comes down to that, he knows his cows and is confident in what he is doing, that’s what I’m aiming for too.”

The Lyalls have made high stock welfare and nutrition cornerstones of their system and from that Joe saw potential for the business to be rewarded financially for these in its milk contract with Aldi by becoming an aligned supplier to Aldi. 

In July 2026 the business also joined Arla’s Welfare Pro scheme to capture further price bonuses, installing cameras into calving sheds and humidity sensors in the main cubicle housing. 

The contract offers Joe the opportunity to be a member of a discussion group for farmers with Aldi-aligned contracts, to meet other farmers who are “just cracking on”.

While he is a team player, he also recognises that there are some boundaries in family businesses which don’t need to be challenged.

Running a successful business is never down to the ideas and achievements of one individual, he insists. 

“You can’t run a modern farm without a team, it’s impossible to hold that amount of information in your head.”

Joe understands the limitations of High Oaks Farm – the grazing platform is divided by a railway line which necessitates running the herd as two groups and rotating these around groups of fields. 

While this can be restricting, it is the next challenge Joe has set his sights on surmounting to allow a greater proportion of milk yield to be produced from forage.

As a young farmer, Joe also see how important environmental management of land is for his generation and future custodians of the land.

 A Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier agreement is driving some of that and, in partnership with water company, United Utilities, the farm has been involved in catchment nitrogen balancing and has invested in infrastructure to divert dirty water, to roof yards, and to fence watercourses to prevent access by cattle.

Joe has a clear sense of the direction he would like the farm to move in. 

“Neither Dad nor I want to get to a point where we are managing a thousand cows, we see other opportunities to dilute our costs in areas like improving youngstock health and performance and reducing age at first calving.”

What the judges say

“Joe has a razor sharp understanding of both the opportunities and challenges of milk production, tackling every challenge strategically and finding innovative ways to grow the financial potential of the herd and land base.”