James and Ann Lally farm 180ha (137ha commonage and 43ha enclosed land) with their children Saoirse (17), Oisin (16), Diarmuid (13) and Owen (nine) in Durless, Kilsallagh, Westport, Co Mayo.

The farm is located in the foothills of the eastern slopes of the famous pilgrimage mountain of Croagh Patrick. The enclosed land is predominantly upland grassland with 4ha of very good quality farmland used for harvesting winter feed.

The holding carries a flock of 200 Mayo Blackface ewes and a spring calving herd of 12 suckler cows. Lambing and calving takes place in late March or early April to coincide with spring grass growth. This a very busy time of year with the entire family helping with various jobs to ensure young lambs and calves are born healthy.

All ewes go to the commonage post-mating in December and remain there until scanning in late January. Ewes scanned for doubles are held and fed ad-lib with round baled silage plus half kg concentrate for six weeks pre lambing. The single carrying ewes remain on the commonage until a week pre-lambing; where they are put in enclosed fields that were closed off the previous November. They lamb outdoors.

Replacement ewe lambs are housed in November and fed ad-lib silage plus quarter kg concentrate until late March when they go to the commonage. Cows calve indoors in late March or early April and are placed in sheltered fields as soon after calving as possible to reduce the risk of infection.

In 2008, James joined the Teagasc BETTER FARM programme as a hill farmer participant. The core aim of the programme is to demonstrate how advanced technologies can help to improve production and profitability at farm level. Over the last five years James has implemented changes in grass production and ewe type. He has increased numbers of lambs sold/ewe to ram and has reduced costs in the overall farming system. As part of the programme, recording birth and weaning weights are essential and the children play an important role in completing these tasks. The family are also recording as part of the Mayo-Connemara breed preservation programme.

The calves are sold as weanlings in autumn, with any late born calves remaining on farm and sold in spring. Lambs are weaned in mid-July and are dosed and put on after grass. Depending on the market, some are sold as stores while others are finished and sold to the factory with average carcass weights of 17kg. Excess ewe lambs are sold as replacements.

The farm is typical of many upland and hill farms throughout the country; with James and his family working together with jobs such as herding, moving stock, shearing, dosing, dipping, saving turf and hay and all associated work with running a family farm. The children are gaining all the skills associated with dry stock farming, learning how to farm commonage and enclosed land that has limitations due to aspect and quality.

Traditionally like many farming families in the west of Ireland; the children are encouraged to study hard at school and go onto college and get a good qualification.