My farming week: Seán Condon, Fanningstown, Crecora, Co Limerick

I farm: “Around 50 organic cows. I’m bottling some of my own milk and keeping on all my own replacements. Most cows calve in spring and about 10 cows calve down in the autumn to keep some milk for bottling through the winter. The farm is 53ha in total.”

System: “I switched to once-a-day milking when I went organic. It’s great when you have a small family, I couldn’t fault it. The cows are mainly Jersey-cross and some Norwegian-Friesian crosses. These breeds take in a bit of everything – milk solids, health – and they suit the once-a-day system.”

Organic: “The farm was a conventional dairy farm up until 17 or 18 years ago. I decided to reduce my stocking rate to go organic. There was only a handful farming organically at the time. You would hope that with more going organic, there will be more done on the research end. More knowledge mixed around and shared.”

Direct selling: “I started bottling my own milk and selling direct in a small way about six or seven years ago. Up to 2,000l could be bottled and sold in a week now. I sell some online, with more sold in shops in Limerick, Dublin and in the west.”

Biodiversity: “I planted a few trees about 15 years ago and the hedges are allowed to mature, only being cut when they become a problem. There is some wild bird cover on the farm too. It all helps to sell the organic bottled milk and I am a Farming for Nature ambassador.”

Low input: “I run an extremely low-input system here. No meal is fed when cows are at grass, it’s only a small bit that goes to the few that milk through December and January. It could work out at 100kg/cow.”