I farm: “A drystock farm. I have ewes and heifers. The farm is 57ha and the land is pretty good. A dry summer would see us burning up.”

Heifers: “I buy in 50 heifers as suck calves and I bring them on to finish at around 18 months and get them finished off grass. It’s about getting it right. The difference between an R and an O can fleece you and you’re working for nothing. Recently, I killed all the cattle at Kildare Chilling.”

Sheep: “I have all sorts of breeds. I’m running about 220 ewes at the minute. I’m trying to breed a bit of Belclare into the flock. We had Suffolk X for years but I wasn’t overly happy with where I was going with that. The Belclare will hopefully help the prolificacy. I might go up in numbers yet.”

Lambing: “I’ll be lambing from next week, so it’s getting busier. The ewes are on 0.5kg of meal and good quality hay. We have an early turnout farm here, so the ewes are in for lambing and out to grass as soon as possible.”

Calves: “I usually buy calves in early spring, really from around now. I bought a couple of Charolais calves there recently. They cost €350 each but they were good calves. Angus and Hereford calves are doing around €255 to €300. The prices are high enough.”

Drystock: “It’s a low-margin business for sure but you can do alright too. You have to love it, though. If you don’t love it, then it’ll do your head in.’’

College: “I had intended to head to Dublin to do biomedical science. I ended up getting an honours management degree in IT Carlow and then I did the distance-learning Green Cert.”

Family: “I farm in partnership with my mother and I have two brothers and a sister.”

Quotable quote: “It’s important to know when your animal is ready for finishing. There’s no point in giving yourself long arms carrying buckets of meal!”