I farm: “Sucklers and sheep on 180ac of land both owned and rented. It’s heavy soil, typical of north Roscommon. It’s great summer land but it gets very wet in the winter.”

Family: “I am married to Annmarie and we have four daughters. Aideen is a qualified teacher, Aisling is studying speech and language therapy at UCG. Gráinne is training as a teacher and Aoife is still in sixth class.”

Sucklers: “We have 82 cows, mostly Charolais and Limousins. Everything is housed at this stage. The cattle went in on 1 October and the lighter cattle went in towards the end of the month. We calve year-round and we have three stock bulls; an Angus for the heifers and two continentals for the cows.”

Sheep: “We have 80 ewes made up of Texels and Suffolks. The lambing usually starts after St Patrick’s Day, so we’re mid-way through breeding at the moment. We split the flock and use two rams, then I switch them over.”

This week: “The sheep were housed for dosing and we weighed the lambs to prepare them for selling at the mart. Everything is in at the moment. It looks like we will have enough feed for the animals as there was great grass-growing this spring.”

Lacken fencing: “I have a fencing contracting business that I split with the farming 50/50. I do the fencing during the day and farm in the evenings.”

Gráinne: “She would be the main one to help me on the farm with the dosing and wrapping silage. Maybe after she qualifies from teaching, she will go on to do the Green Cert. That will give her choices.”