I farm: “About 200 acres of land in Four Roads, Co Roscommon. The farm is quite different to farms in the south of the country in that mine is quite fragmented. It’s broken up between about three different farms spread well apart.”

Stock: “I have 70 cows and about 200 ewes. I sell the calves as weanlings and keep a few of the stronger heifers to rear in my own herd. You wouldn’t make a great living with sheep, but they’re good to have at the same time. We used to have more in the past but we scaled back to get more cattle in. It’s nice to have a few sheep around the place.”

Calving: “With the bad weather at the start of the year, calving will be pushed back a bit. I would usually have had cows starting to calve around now, but it’ll be a few weeks before that happens. I have a Charolais and a Blonde bull and use AI quite a bit. The early calvers would be from the AI.”

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Silage: “We made silage and hay the like we’ve never had before. The quality of silage has been great. Most farmers in the area are the same and have been very happy with it. We needed the weather to turn though, people were struggling after the bad start to the year, but thankfully it did and farmers are a lot happier now. I put in the cattle only a couple of weeks ago so I should be okay for this year, barring any problems.”

Sport: “I’ve been involved in sport all my life and it’s great to see my nieces come through now. I’m the chairperson of the local club. I was part of setting up the club years ago. I love being involved in both football and camogie, it’s a great break from the farming at the same time. I still try to play a bit, but not as much as I used to.”

Quotable quote: “The first six months this year really stretched farming. It was difficult to manage your way through and it was tough on both farmer and beast.”