The farm: “I keep 190 ewes and 100 head of beef cattle with my grandson, Daniel Smyth. We farm 110 acres of drumlin hills in the north of Monaghan, running a mid-season lambing system in tandem with our beef stock”.

Sheep: “This year, we expanded our flock by investing in 70 hogget ewes, increasing our total breeding numbers to 190. Lambing began in early March, with the last lambs hitting the ground in mid-April, which concluded a successful season for us.”

The breeds: “The farm has Texel-Suffolk cross ewes and six purebred Texel rams. Usually, we cull 20 to 30 ewes each year with hogget ewes bought in as replacements.”

Beef: “We keep 100 beef cattle mainly composed of continental breeds, predominantly Charolais. We only buy in heifer weanlings as I find it takes less inputs to reach our target weight at slaughter and, in turn, gives us better margins.”

Production: All the animals that leave our farm are sold through the Monaghan Producer Group. We produce 350 lambs each year which are slaughtered by Dawn Meats in Ballyhaunis. Lambs are drafted at 40kg and our first batch will be ready by the end of May. We run a weanling-to-beef system and our cattle are slaughtered nearby at ABP Clones, from December to May.”

This week: “We are getting the silage ground ready by sowing fertiliser and spreading slurry to encourage a strong grass growth.”

Best investment: “An extra pair of hands has been the best investment for this year’s lambing season. With the help of my grandson, Daniel, it has reduced my workload and made the long hours monitoring ewes easier.”

Future plans: “I was dairy farming up until 10 years ago and with the way beef has gone I am considering contract-rearing dairy stock in future.”

Quotable quote: “I believe flushing the ewes using good grass a month prior to the introduction of the rams is key to our low level of repeats at 5%.”