I farm: “A total of 28.6ha between Kilnaleck and Mountnugent in Co Cavan. It’s a compact farm.”

Stock: “I have sucklers and sheep. I have 38 suckler cows and 84 ewes.”

Cows: “The cows are mix between Charolais, Simmental, Limousin and a few Salers. I’ve tried Salers in the past couple of years because they’re easy calving and make good cows. I AI-ed eight Simmentals to Salers last year and hoped for heifers. Sure enough, only two of them were heifers, the rest were bulls.”

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All AI: “I’m 100% AI. The last time I had a bull was 2009 and he had problems with his feet. One bull just doesn’t work on every cow and you need to choose the right bull for the cow.”

Weanlings: “I usually sell the autumn bulls as weanlings in Carrigallen in the first week of September, but because a lot of them were Salers, I’ll keep them on to bull beef.”

Weather: “The weather has been nothing short of horrible this year. The ground is very heavy here. In a dry year, it’s a great farm to grow grass, but in a bad year, you’re in trouble.”

Cattle housed: “I’ve had six cows and seven calves in all summer. There were another 10 heifers, which only got out last Friday after going in in July, and there were two cows ready for calving who got out a couple of days before them because they were getting stiff on the slats.”

Slurry: “I am full to the brim with slurry. I desperately need to get slurry out. The last few days have helped, but land is still very wet. I’ve one field there that you’d lose your wellington in. There’s a man coming Wednesday to spread. If he can’t get out with the tanker, I’ll need to get the pipe in. It’s very serious.”

Quotable quote: “Calendar farming doesn’t work; not around here anyway. We can’t spread slurry from this Saturday until 1 February, where’s the sense in that if you get a dry January?”