I farm: “60ha of grassland and 16ha of tillage, with my wife Bríd and son Lorcan in Fieldstown West, Kilsallagh, Co Dublin. Our livestock are sheep and cattle.”

Turkey: “We keep 250 free-range turkeys for the Christmas market. These are mainly kept outdoors and housed at night for safety.”

Sheep: “I have 500 ewes. The breed type would mainly be Belclare cross and they go back with Suffolk and Vendeen rams. The policy I have for breeding replacements is most of my Suffolk cross ewes are bred with a Belclare ram; from this cross we get a fairly prolific type of ewe which are really good mothers.”

Lambing: “Lambing started on 27 February. It was a difficult season in general. Every pen and every shed had sheep in it at some stage this year. We were full to capacity. Ewes had to go out eventually and we fed them supplement feeds when they went to grass.”

Cattle: “We run a calf-to-beef system each year with 30 Aberdeen Angus cross heifers. This year’s calves were bought a fortnight ago. I will feed them on milk replacer for five to six weeks and these will be let out to grass the first week of June. I hope to get them into beef by November 12 months, all going well.”

Grass: “Thirty of last year’s heifers went out last week. Ground conditions are reasonably good. We put out fertiliser Saturday 7 April. The place is really starting to green up and I have seen decent growth coming in the last few weeks.”

Weather: “Conditions this spring were really tough on the farm. St Patrick’s weekend was probably the worst for us. I have to compliment my neighbours and friends who offered support during this period which was fantastic to see.”

Tillage: “We have 40ac of tillage. The main crops we grow are oats and wheat.”

Agri Aware: “We are one of the hosts for the Agri Aware National Open Farm Day on the bank holiday Monday 7 May. It really should be a great day. All are welcome. The aim is to educate people about what happens on a working farm and where food comes from.”

Agri Aware’s National Open Farm Day takes place on 7 May, bank holiday Monday.