Farmers love inspections. We can often spend days at a time working away on our own, then the call comes that a visitor is on the way. I know some like to add a little excitement by turning up unannounced but others give a few weeks' notice.

This time can really help to build up a sense of anticipation. Am I better to have the place sparkling or with a lived-in feel? Better not to go overboard with the glitter, it is a working farm after all.

As a farmer, I love to talk farming. There is nothing worse than showing someone with no interest in what they see around the yard. This guy would be different. I knew he would have a real interest in finding out everything about me and my business. Basics like stock numbers and types, size of farm and the machinery. Details like sales, purchases, expenses, leases. Real details like names of who bought my calves and culls, who worked for me. Oh yes, this guy would be big into detail, this guy was a tax inspector.

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The inspector coming to me wrote a very official self-invitation. In fact he wrote two self-invitations. One to me directly, and one to my business partnership. No stone would be left unturned in finding out every nugget of information. Despite being the busy spring calving/fertilising/feeding period, I would need to be in the office too.

For good order, I use a second accountant to oversee the partnership books so there were two professionals to assist on my side of the table. Much of the information is straightforward as I do most of my dealing through the co-op. Stock movements are catalogued by a download from the Department of Agricultures’s Agfood website. Cash dealings are a thing of the past so the bank statements pull all the other invoices together. I’m sure he had researched me beforehand but the unusually high travelling for this farmer was carefully explained.

I have had numerous department and County Council inspections over the years like any farmer. This was the first time though that anyone seemed to be interested in whether I was making a profit.

There’s not much that the state doesn’t know about me at this stage. I feel a real sense of pride that my enterprise attracts so much interest.

By the way, he agreed with my calculations.