It has been an eventful year on Tullamore Farm. Beef editor Adam Woods takes a look back, in pictures, on the year that’s been.

FEBRUARY: Storm Emma created havoc on Tullamore Farm at the end of February. Frozen water pipes, rehousing cattle and snow drifts all took a huge effort from farm staff to sort out.

FEBRUARY: A shelter was constructed on the farm to provide cover for calves during storm Emma. An electric fence was erected around the bales and calves spent a few nights in their shelter before being housed.

MARCH: Seventeen cows and calves had to return indoors as storm Emma hit the midlands. This put a huge amount of pressure on housing space in the yard.

MARCH: This heifer calf was born during the first week of March as storm Emma moved on. She is by QCD (Cloondron Calling). She weighed 60kg and needed a little assistance to deliver safely.

MARCH: Ewes started to lamb on Tullamore Farm on 27 March 2018 and most ewes lambed over a busy five-week period.

MARCH: Tullamore Farm hosted an Agri Aware Farm Walk and Talk open day. The walk was attended by more than 500 secondary school students where they listened to Irish Farmers Journal specialists go through the technical aspects on Tullamore Farm.

APRIL: This calf was born with some assistance from Shaun Diver, farm manager on Tullamore Farm. A lot of effort goes in to make sure calves receive adequate colostrum and pens are kept as clean as possible around calving time.

MAY: Tullamore Farm held its first ever breeding heifer sale on Monday 7 May in Tullamore Mart, Co Offaly. The heifer in the photo weighed 515kg and made €1,250. Average weight was 350kg and average price was €950.

JULY: Summer 2018 will be remembered for the drought conditions experienced on the farm. This photo taken from a drone by photographer Claire-Jeanne Nash gives an idea of how burnt up the farm was.

JULY: Cows and calves were held up on paddocks and cows were fed round baled silage while calves were fed 2kg of creep feed daily in an adjacent paddock to cope with drought conditions. \ Claire-Jeanne Nash

JULY: Aerial footage of some of the paddocks on Tullamore Farm in July. \ Claire-Jeanne Nash

JULY: The majority of the 2017-born bulls on Tullamore Farm were slaughtered in June and July 2018. This bull weighed 675kg at slaughter. Carcase weight was 420kg (62% kill-out). He graded U=2= and came into €1,745.

AUGUST: Tullamore Farm headed to Tullamore Show with a livestock display in August. Justin McCarthy, Shaun Diver and Darren Carty spoke about how the farm coped with the drought conditions in July 2018. \ Philip Doyle

AUGUST: Tullamore Farm hosted a mini open day. Farm manager Shaun Diver speaks about farm management and performance. \ Philip Doyle

SEPTEMBER: After the National Ploughing Championships were cancelled, Tullamore Farm got a call from Mairead McGuiness MEP to ask if she could visit the farm along with members of the EU agriculture committee.

SEPTEMBER: Phelim O’Neill taking the opportunity to ask Mairead McGuiness MEP a few questions on her visit to Tullamore Farm in September.

SEPTEMBER: Niko (Tullamore Farm sheep dog) was one of the highlights of the visit from the European parliament.

OCTOBER: These two new arrivals on Tullamore Farm were put to work at the end of October. Nearly all ewes were tupped inside five weeks with very little repeats observed.

OCTOBER: A new Irish Farmers Journal animal health video series was launched in October. Journal vet Tommy Heffernan and beef editor Adam Woods put together over 20 videos on weanling health, all shot on Tullamore Farm. Videos can be viewed at www.farmersjournal.ie

NOVEMBER: Tullamore Farm hosted numerous groups in 2018. One was a Macra group on 21 November. The talk was on beef, animal nutrition and winter dosing. \Ramona Farrelly

DECEMBER: And so the cycle continues. Cows have been body condition scored and have started to be fed minerals and 0.5kg soya bean meal daily in advance of calving starting on 1 February.