I farm: "With my father Eamonn in north Kilkenny. We buy in calves and fatten them to 24 months. We have over 50 head of cattle."

Cattle: "My dad always ran a suckler to beef system using a mixture of Simmental and Charolais cows with a Limousin bull but we have since ventured into buying in young calves and rearing them."

Calves: "I started to buy in calves from local marts and from farmers, and rear them with the aim of selling them at 24 months. I would ideally prefer to buy good quality British Friesians crossed with continentals direct from farmers."

Breeds: "I tried Friesian bull beef before and this proved to be quite expensive because they were on ad-lib meal from an early stage and difficult to sell to factories when they were ready to go. It can be difficult to get the grading up in Friesian animals. This year I went with Limousin calves sired by Dovea Limousin EBY AI bull and Hereford calves, a mixture of bulls and heifers."

OAD powder: "This year was the first year we switched to once-a-day milk powder for the calves. OAD is more costly than twice-a-day powder. However, it is better in terms of its flexibility."

Future: "The way beef is at the minute with factory prices, I’ve no idea where beef farming is going. Hopefully there will be a big increase in prices or else there will be no beef farmers left. Dairying could also be an option in the future. There are more regular payments in it than there are in beef."

Camogie: "I have quite a busy lifestyle between everything. I’m a primary school teacher and I play camogie with my local club St Martin’s and with Kilkenny. I teach in the daytime and train and farm in the evenings."

All-Ireland semi-final: "We’ve had four weeks off since our last championship game. It’s been a long break. We play Tipperary on 17 August. I’m looking forward to the semi-final. Tipperary want to be in the All-Ireland as much as we do so we know we have a tough game ahead of us."

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