I farm: At the foot of the highest mountain in Ireland, Carrauntoohil in Co Kerry. I’m farming here all my life. I was actually born here.

Family: I farm with my wife Kathleen and two sons, Shane and Kieran.

Land: We have land that we own and there’s also a share in 1,500ac of commonage in the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks. It’s hilly kind of ground, it’s all uphill, it would stretch out your heart fairly well.

Stock: Mostly sheep, very little cattle because with the climate that’s coming, it’s a no go for the cattle, they need too much fodder and you end up buying in more stuff and all that.

I used to carry 10 suckler cows. I’m down to two now and they’ll be going too. It doesn’t pay anymore, everything is gone too expensive.

Lambing: We’re nearly finished. They’re down to single numbers now.

Late spring: We sent the hoggets to the mountain last week; normally they go at the end of March. They’re gone till the end of July. Grass wouldn’t start growing normally in the Reeks until the first of May.

Storm Emma: We had big snow drifts because we were open to the east. There was no point going out, you wouldn’t know where you were walking. It was all just one straight line. There were drifts in the cliffs 50ft deep. We had to get the track machine to open the lane down to the road. We had no water for over a week. It was back to buckets, the old style.

Losses: I found three sheep dead in a kind of a cave. They were drifted in by the snow and I didn’t get them. They ate the wool off each other trying to stay alive.

Gathering: It would take us over a week or more to gather them all because you will never get them all at the one time. We use the phones to communicate when gathering. Before them we just made do.

Locating sheep: There would be no driving around anyway. We use binoculars and spend a good bit of our farming time walking. It’s more physical work. I’m getting smaller. I’m worn out.