My farming week: Donie and Maura McKeown, Enniscrone, Co Sligo

We farm: 75 acres, with 55 acres of this being rented and 20 acres owned. We started out farming in our own right in our 20s; leasing ground and milking dairy Shorthorn cows in a retired dairy farmer’s parlour. We were ahead of our time with share farming. We continue with dairy Shorthorns right up until 2008, when we sold the herd and concentrated our efforts on the pedigree Limousins.

Getting in to pedigrees: We bought our first pedigree heifer in Roscrea in 1998 and we paid £3,100 for her, which was a fair sum of money in 1998. She was a two-year-old when we bought her and she was here until she was 16. The year after we bought her, we sent her to Cork for flushing, and we had some of the calves from her up until 2015 from the flushes. We bought another heifer the year after, with five more females purchased in England in 2005 from the Greenwell herd.

Cherished memories: We have had great memories from showing both the dairy Shorthorns and the Limousines down through the years. When the RDS show was on, we would be there from Monday until Friday in Dublin, sleeping in sleeping bags alongside the cattle. There was one year we had 12 cattle in it. In the Limousines, we had great fun and camaraderie, especially with our friend Zulu (John Moore), who passed away last year. In 2015 we had a great calf, Milan Jefferson, who Zulu managed to let loose in Roundfort show and for the remainder of the summer he got jibing over it. The shows haven’t been the same without him. Jefferson went on to win 16 firsts that year and sold for €12,200 at 12 months old in Roscrea.

Stepping back: we made the decision three years ago that we would retire from pedigrees and calving cows in 2024, as we have no immediate successor. We want to be able enjoy our retirement while we are both in good health. We are having an open day alongside the NW Limousin club here on Sunday, 30 June, from 2-4pm, with our dispersal sale taking place on 20 July at Elphin Mart.