I farm: “About 200 acres, with about 25 acres of that rented. It is located in eight different locations so we are very fragmented which is a disadvantage. The ground would be fairly good though overall.”

Sucklers: “We have 52 sucklers. Half are Hereford and the other half are a mixture of Charolais and Limousin. We run a Charolais and Limousine bull with them, with 20 calved out in autumn and 32 calving this spring from 10 March. We’ll hopefully have them all calved in three weeks.”

Beef: “I buy in about 20 suck calves throughout the year as well as 20 weanlings. The calves would be Friesians or Herefords, while the weanlings would be continentals.”

Sheep: “I have 87 ewes in all. They’d be a mix of Texel X and Charollais X with a Charollais ram. We start lambing on 1 April and, all going well, we will be finished by the third week in April. We’d be hoping to get them off between July and October. The lambs are sold through the Offaly Lamb Production Group.”

Fragmented land: “Our land is well spread out. I would have a nice chunk close enough to the yard and the house but, in terms of distance, all of it would be spread between 20 and 30 miles. We would keep the sheep on the land that is furthest away.”

This week: “I spread lime there last week and planted a hedge, so this week I am hopeful of getting some fertiliser out. I have already bought some 10:10:20, 18:6:12 and cut swards.”

GAA: “I am involved locally with Tubber GAA and was a selector in the past few years, but not this year. I am a keen supporter of Offaly as well. The hurlers are not going great at the moment but the footballers seem to have picked up in recent months, which is encouraging.”

Family: “My wife Bernadette is a primary school teacher. We have three sons David, Brian and Ciarán. They all help out on the farm when they’re home.”

Quotable quote: “Fragmentation of land leads to a lot of extra work and a lot of extra expense.”