I farm: ”With my wife Kerrie, my two sons Adam (10) and Charlie (four) and my brother Matthew. We run a pedigree Hereford herd as well as commercial sucklers. We’re farming 120ac in total, 60ac is owned and a further 60ac is under long-term lease.?? My father Brendan is also involved, he broods and rears turkeys for McKeown Fine Foods in Antrim. ”

Pedigrees: ”We have 10 pedigree Hereford cows and operate under the prefix ‘Lisgoagh’. The Hereford bull I use is from the Pulham herd in the UK, Pulham Wedding Crasher is his name. The remaining 45 cows are commercial Charolais and Limousins.”

Calving: ”I calve 35 cows from Christmas until April and another 20 between July and August. I like to calve the purebreds in autumn because it means the bulls are ready for sale by their second spring and ready for work on dairy farms. A split calving season also breaks up the work load, puts less pressure on accommodation, and from a cashflow point of view it means I have weanlings to sell this time of the year.”

Breeding: “I used to use all AI but as the farm expanded it became harder. There’s less labour involved with the bulls. I run a Charolais bull with any of the plainer cows and use a Limousin bull on any Limousin cows I hope to breed replacements from.”

Trade: “I took four Limousin-crosses to the weanling sale in Ballybay on Friday and I never got money like it in my life. I had two Limousin bulls that were 355kg and 315kg and they made €1,350 and €1,200. They were only eight months old. I had four Hereford bulls to sell this year and got from €2,600 up to €3,000 for them.”

Weather: ”I should have cows and calves out at this stage and it’s putting a lot of pressure on things. Scour is a daily fear when you’ve too many in the shed.”

Rearing calves: “I buy Hereford-cross calves from dairy farmers I sold bulls to for the young lads to rear. I always reared calves with my grandfather so I wanted to keep the tradition up.”