This year got off to a very busy start for us, with 23 kid goats being born on New Year’s Day. We are almost finished kidding now. Goat milk prices have gone up and we even got a bonus top-up from the creamery for last year’s supply.

They are looking for us to double the number of goats as there is a shortage of milk since the creamery developed its own cheese. We are considering it, but it will mean more investment as we would need to consider a newer milking machine, possibly a rotary one like those used in Holland, and we would need a new building.

2013 was also hectic for us and full of changes. We have bought another farm of 140ha with a quota for 75 suckler cows. We had to buy 75 cows from the farm, which were all Limousin cows, in order to get the quota. We have ploughed almost half of the farm and sown cereal.

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We are keeping all the cattle on the home farm because the fields are piped for water. This is not the case on a lot of French farms and so farmers spend a lot of time drawing water to livestock.

We will sow all our cereal on the new farm as it is a bit away. Also, with the new shed we put up last year, we can house most of the cattle here at home.

We are finished calving. Cow prices are still very strong so we are increasing the number of replacement heifers from 25 to 40. We are running seven bulls at the moment, two of which we borrowed from an English neighbour. Declan is going to the next sale at the Lanaud station in Limoges to look for a Limousin bull.

Installed as farmers

We have formed a company known as a GAEC and our children, Emily and Luke, are now installed as farmers. This involved an awful lot of administration and courses. The French administration is a real test of endurance and patience as there are so many committees and regulations to deal with.

We formed a GAEC primarily to get Luke installed. For him to install on his own, Luke would need to either buy or rent a farm and be completely self-sufficient with his own machinery, etc. He would not be able to use our machinery as he would not be considered self-sufficient then. To install him with us, we needed to form a company. He will still get his installation grant to help him start up.

There are loans available to young farmers installing, with interest rates of 1% for the first nine years. However, there are a lot of ridiculous conditions attached to these loans.

The money can be used to buy new machinery, but not second-hand machinery. It can be used to buy stock, but it cannot be used to buy land or farm buildings. One advantage of the GAEC is that there is a thing called transparency in France. This means that with three of us in the company, we can triple some of the grants.

For example, the first 40 cows here normally get a premium grant, so with the GAEC we will now be able to get this premium for the first 120 cows. Similarly, there will be a premium with the new CAP for the first 50ha and we will get this premium for the first 150ha. Newly-installed young farmers are also entitled to a 50-cow suckler quota.

In order to form a GAEC you need to submit a five-year plan and have this approved by various committees.

If you want to make any changes to the plan within these five years you need to get permission from the committees again.

Last year got off to a slow start but we ended up with our best harvest ever. There was no shortage of feed this year in France. This worked out very well for us as we did not need to buy any fodder for the extra cows.

Starting out

William has started art college in Clermont Ferrand and lives in a studio in a student block a few minutes walk from the school. It is a big change for him as now he has to cook and clean up for himself.

He is getting on well and comes home most weekends. The college fees are very low in France compared to Ireland.

Laura has also started Lycée, doing a Bac Hotellerie in Limoges, where she hopes to train as a chef, so she is also away all week, coming home at weekends. She has a 5am start every Monday morning to take the train to Limoges and is not back till 7pm Friday evening. Students get good assistance here with 13 free return tickets and 50% off any further train tickets they need to buy for school. We thought she would find it difficult being away from home but she has adjusted well and is practising her new menus on us at the weekends.

Luke is in Australia for the last few months, working with a cereal farmer. He likes it well even though it is very hot there at the moment. All we hear about are the big combines, big trucks and articulated tractors.

The house is very quiet during the week with all three of them gone, and it was the first Christmas we were not all together. Luke is coming home shortly and we are looking forward to it.

The weather here has been very mild over the winter – long may it continue. CL