I Farm: “Just outside Newcastle West in Limerick. I have beef and poultry businesses. I took over the farm from my parents in the past few years. The land is pretty good around here, soft but good.”

Beef: “We have a mixture of 200 to 250 beef animals. We produce heifers for finishing as early as we can. I had a few bulls at the start of last year and looking at the bull beef market, I’m delighted I didn’t get into it in a bigger way. I send the heifers to both ABP and Dawn Meats”

Poultry: “I had two poultry houses. One with a capacity of 12,000 free range birds and the other with a capacity of 14,000. I grow for Eugene Lannon in Western Brand. Western is a great company, they really look after their growers. I had planning permission in for a third shed but unfortunately we lost one of our sheds last week.”

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Storms: “We got a desperate doing from the storms last week. The shed with the 12,000 bird capacity is a write-off. The wind caught it and took a decent bit of the roof off but more importantly it moved the entire shed about six inches to the right. It’s no small shed but the poles inside were moved a few inches and every nail and rivet in the place were ripped. I was standing in the shed at the time of the storm and had to kick the door open because the door had warped. The insurance assessor was in the place on Monday. He took one look at it and condemned the shed. It’s a huge loss.”

Quotable Quote: “The insurance companies need to step up and help every farmer that has been affected by the storms. They were happy enough to take my money for the premiums last year so they need to take responsibility now too.”