I farm: “Near Tuam in Co Galway. It’s a mixed suckler and sheep farm. All the land is owned and it’s a medium-sized farm.”

Land: “The land is good and dry but it’s still too early to have cows out. If you put them out now, you’ll have no grass later in the year. We’ll still see a fair bit of rainfall before the cattle are out.”

Suckler system: “The sucklers are split calving. It’s about 50/50 calving between the autumn and the spring. I have about 40 cows in total. They are mainly Limousin and Belgian Blue.”

Parthenaise: “I breed pure-bred Parthenaise animals. They’re a great animal. I’m trying to sell a few at the minute.”

The Belgian Blue: “She’s a great, lovely cow and usually brings plenty of milk with her but there’s just no demand from buyers for the stock. Unless there are a few exporters at the ring, nobody wants the Blue. The Charolais or a good Limousin are all buyers at marts seem to want now.”

Weanlings: “I sell all the stock as weanlings in either Tuam or Headford marts. The last selling I did was in the autumn; I was happy enough with them. I’ll sell a few more in the spring time.”

AI: “I do all my own AI and I’m on the road doing a bit for the neighbours too. The most popular breed is an Angus. It’s WZG and that’s the one that I’m using more than any other. ZGM, LM 4027 and LRY are popular too. There’s definitely no demand for the Blue.”

Sheep: “I have 110 ewes. They’re Suffolk and Texel. They’ll be lambing down from 10 March.”

Barley: “I grow a small bit of winter barley too. I escaped last year and got it harvested OK. I sell on the barley and I planted again in September there.”

Quotable quote: “There are more part time farmers and nobody wants to use the calving jack, so I’m being asked to use Angus more and more now.”