I farm: “In partnership with my uncle John O’Brien. We have 120 spring-calving Holstein Friesians on a 122ac milking platform. We have another 20ac owned down the road for calves and a 37ac block rented for silage and the heifers.”

Calving: “We have 75% calved. We did sexed semen on the heifers and got 17 heifers out of 24. An Angus stock bull goes into them then and we use Belgian Blue and Hereford AI on any of the cows we don’t want heifers from. We rear our own replacements; the dairy bulls go for export and any beef calves are sold in the mart. Some went last week and they made €330-€350 each. Prices are similar to last year.”

Weather: “It’s a dream spring, sure. “We’ve had no problems; ground is unbelievable. Cows are out day and night and they’re getting a buffer between milking, silage and a small bit of beet. There’s just shy of 28% of the milking platform grazed. We’re milking twice a day, through a 16-unit herringbone parlour.”

Fertiliser: “I bought and spread some urea to get me going, at about €900/t. I’m hanging tough as much as possible to see if it will come down. I’m hoping that’ll happen. Milk wouldn’t want to come down more because meal and fertiliser is still very expensive.”

Nitrates: “I’m only barely in the middle band. I can’t really produce more with the cows I have or I’ll have to go back in numbers. It’s almost like a new quota. The only thing I’d be worried about is land availability. It’s gone very expensive.”

Triplets: “We had an eighth calver 10-year-old Holstein cow have Belgian Blue triplets on Thursday morning. She had a set of twins previously and she was scanned for two again. The first one was just calved when we came on her and John calved the other two then, two bulls and a heifer. They’re going fine so far. It’s a thing now you wouldn’t see too often.”

Macra: “I’m chairperson of our local Dundrum Macra club. It’s a great way of getting people involved, especially those not in the GAA. It’s a great outlet.”