I farm: “On 115-acres in Tara, Meath. The land is pretty good here. I have sheep and sucklers.”

Sheep: “I have 80 ewes, 60 of which are pedigree texels; the commercial sheep are cross breeds. We have only three lambs landed, we’ll be getting going properly in the next few days. I’s a bit like the calm before the storm. The ewes have been in for the past month and we'll keep them in for two weeks after lambing.

Ram: “A ram that I had last year became champion at the Blessington sale. He was sold on then to the UK where he became sire of the year in his breed. A son of that ram made £52,000 (€68,659) in Scotland and other sons made a couple of thousand euro too. It’s raised the profile of what I do for sure.”

Sucklers: “We have 50 suckler cows, a mix of Blonde, Limousin and Belgian Blue cows. We have 30 calved already since August. We calve most of the cows when they’re outside, it works best for us, the calves are usually healthier that way too we find. We use only AI as we don’t have a stock bull. We sell the calves as weanlings in Carnaross mart. The beef trade is on fire at the minute.”

Family: “I’m married to Anne and we have two sons; David and Barry. David lives in Canada and Barry is around here. Barry works fulltime and helps around the farm, he has a good interest in the farm.”

Dairy: “I was in dairying for 35 years but I got out in 2008. I needed a hip replacement, the lads weren’t that into the dairying so I decided it was time to finish up at that. We had all Holstein cows. We needed to upgrade things and the land was a bit spread out. I’m enjoying the change of pace.”

Quotable Quote: “I’m not looking for big numbers, quality stock is more important to me.”