I farm: “About 120 acres altogether. I rent land as well. We use about 70 acres for the sheep and about 60 acres for the dairy cows. We are from south Kerry and most of the land is dry. In summer it gets a bit too dry. An odd piece is a bit gravelly, but not too bad.”

Dairy: “I hope to be milking around 60 this year, we have British Friesian X Holsteins and one Jersey cow. We’ll be calving everything over the next month or two, so I’d usually dry the cows out in November and start them milking again in January.”

Sheep: “I have 100 Texel-cross sheep and they will be ready for lambing this March and April. I’m expecting around 140 or 150 lambs out of that. We keep three rams – two Texel and one Suffolk.”

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Feeding: “All the dairy cows are housed at the moment. I have them on high-energy nuts during the dry period to keep them in condition. I keep the sheep outside during the winter and give them silage.”

This week: “The calving season just started, so we have a fair bit on. It was due to start on 8 or 9 January but we had a few beforehand.”

IFA: “The upcoming elections will be interesting enough I suppose. It would be nice to see Flor McCarthy get it – he’s a straight-up, honest man and a hard worker as well, so he’d do a good job in there.”

Dairy today: “It’s difficult times for farmers. Smaller farmers seem to be suffering a bit in comparison with the bigger ones. More support is definitely needed.”

Family: “There’s my wife Bríd, my son Jamie and my daughters Leah, Rebecca and Emma. With four girls in the house, I get told what to do a lot!”

Quotable quote: “It’s hard to know what to make of these quotas. Production is increasing alright, but prices are so up and down at the moment.”