I farm: “On the banks of the Slaney in Ballycarney, Co Wexford. It’s just outside Enniscorthy. I farm with my brother Raymond. We’re tillage farmers. We till about 500 acres or thereabouts.”

Crops: “We grow winter wheat, winter barley, winter malting barley and mainly spring malting barley too.”

This week: “We’re sowing malting propino this week. There is a bit of spring wheat left to sow but everything else that needs to be in the ground is.”

Prices: “Prices were well back last year for all crops. You couldn't say that there was a comfortable margin out of really. Forward grain prices are up, malting barley forward prices are good but you’re looking at needing a weather disaster in another country in order to get really good prices here in Ireland. Saying that, the malting barley industry is looking reasonably positive.”

Inputs: “Inputs is the big thing in tillage. Inputs are too high to match grain prices. Then you have the cost of fertilizer and the cost of machinery. It all adds up.”

Volatility: “Volatility is something you hear an awful lot about in other sectors but never really for the tillage farmer. We’ve had a bad year, we could have another bad one this year. It might be three years of bad prices before you get a good one. You look around and see sheds still full of straw from last year. Tillage farmers have to deal with volatility no different than anyone else.”

Greening: “A lot has been made about greening and it’ll affect a few farmers. We already grow three crops so thankfully it shouldn’t be too much of a burden for us here.”

Quotable quote: “There hasn’t been much of a return in tillage farming recently.The way the market fluctuates makes it difficult to plan for your business.”