I farm: “With my partner, Mary, and my son, Cathal. The land is a mix of leased and owned. Most years we sow between 40ac and 50ac of potatoes.”

Harvesting: ”We finished harvesting potatoes on 23 October. We’re happy to finish the harvesting, we had three times the normal amount of rainfall last week. The potatoes were dried and cured with large fans before being put into storage in a cold room. We got the cattle and weanlings housed before the heavy rainfall, they were starting to do damage to grassland.”

Tillage: “We grow potatoes, vegetables, spring barley and fodder beet as well as the grassland.”

Inputs: “Soil is tested to ensure minimum use of fertiliser, which will be important with the rising costs. We walk the crops every week to try to ensure spraying occurs only when necessary.”

Beef: “We buy approximately 40-50 calves each year around late January/early February. We source from local dairy farms, Belgian Blue, Angus, Friesian, Limousin, Aubrac calves. All cattle are finished between 22 and 26 months of age.”

Mixed farming: “There are lots of benefits to it. It helps with soil health; straw is used for animal feed and bedding. Farmyard manure and slurry goes back out onto the soil, keeping the organic matter high; waste potatoes/vegetables are used along with fodder beet and silage to feed the animals.”

Organics: “There’s not enough of a market to justify it, we’d lose a lot of business if we did. Most people want cheap food, and you can’t blame them when trying to feed a family.”

Eco schemes: “We’d be open to it. Hopefully by the time all the negotiations are done there will be a scheme that we’ll be able to work with.”

Farm shop: “We run a farm shop from our yard, selling our produce, along with fruit, jams and chutneys. The shop runs on a self-service basis using an honesty box. We place the emphasis on ensuring high quality crops rather than high yield.”

Quotable quote: “You have to enjoy farming, if you don’t enjoy it, you won’t last at it.”