I farm: “About 250ac in all. There are 130ac on the home farm and the rest is on a long-term lease within about three miles.

Stock: “This year I’m calving down 237 cows, all Jersey-Friesian crosses. Calving started on 28 January and there are 173 calved now.”

Cow type: “The herd is now all Jersey–Friesian crosses. I used to have a British Friesian herd, but it got cleared out with BSE. When I got back in I went the Jersey cross route. The oldest Jersey crosses are now in their third lactation.”

Expansion: “I bought 140,000gal during the quotas time and 120 cows was my limit. I’ve been building numbers ever since, but I’ve reached the stage now where I’m starting to cull. The herd solids are fairly good, but I’m going to cull anything that’s below 3.3% protein.”

Calves: “I’ll rear about 70 heifer calves and sell the rest at New Ross Mart. I reared them on milk powder last year, but they’re on whole milk at the moment and I haven’t made up my mind whether to stay on whole milk or switch them to powder.”

Housing: “I keep 30 calves per pen, but the pen is divided into a bedded lying pen and a separate feeding area. There’s a 30-teat milk feeder in the middle of the feeding pen. Last year I had 16 calves per pen and they were lying and feeding in it. So far the new set-up seems to work well and it’s nice and clean.”

Heifers and help: “On the farm I have one full-time man with me, Paddy Colfer from Duncannon. This year I’m giving 91 yearling heifers to a friend of mine to contract-rear. They will come back in calf.”

Family: “My wife, Caroline, and I have two sons and two daughters. Ben is nine, Ryan is eight, Kayla is seven and Ali is four. They all love being outdoors, but so far Ben is the only one showing a real interest in farming.”

Quotable quote: “I don’t know what I’ll do if two of them decide they both want to farm. I don’t think I would give it to two of them, I’ve seen too many families broken up by that. I’d love to be able to invest in another farm if that was the case, but land is gone so expensive that’s not an easy thing to do.”