Milk: “We run a 250-cow spring-calving milking herd on 295ac. We’d have the Friesians and then a few crossbreeds as well. The farm is split in four blocks with a 200ac grazing platform, two blocks of 40ac each and then another 15ac. We make silage and rear the heifers on the three smaller blocks. We milk twice a day through a 20-unit Dairymaster parlour and supply Lakeland Dairies.”

Calving: “We’d almost 200 of the cows calved in February and we’ve the back well broken on calving now. They’ve gone well but we’d a lot more than other years come backwards with five in the one day last week. We’ve had a great run of Friesian heifers off the sexed and normal semen with over 100 of them on the ground now. We’ll keep anything with an EBI over €200 and sell the rest.”

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Beef bulls: “We also used Gene Ireland beef bull straws last year and have a mix of Angus, Hereford, Aubrac and Belgian Blue calves on the ground now as well. These will all be sold off farm. We also run our own Angus and Hereford bulls to clean up after AI each year.”

Grass: “The cows are out day and night and have been milking at 3.65% protein and 5.16% fat from 100% grass for the last two weeks. They’d been on and off grazing since the 8 February. We’ve 23% of the farm grazed and 2,000 gallons of slurry spread at the minute.”

Students: “I’ve been taking students on placement from Gurteen Agricultural College for the last 22 years and we’ve two at the moment. My own children then, Emma (24), Katie (18), Peter (17) and Gerard (16) all have a role on the farm too. The young blood keeps you going and you never stop learning from them.”