I farm: “Alongside my father, Patrick on an 80ha block milking 200 cows. All of our young stock are contract reared once they are weaned. We have a 24 unit herringbone parlour and the milking platform is all in one block for the cows to graze.”

Cows: “All our cows are Jersey cross Friesians. We use a mixture of breeds of bulls to get the crossbred cows that we want and we only use sexed semen Jersey straws. After the first few weeks of breeding, we use Hereford AI on the rest of the cows.”

Calving: “It will start the second week of February with the heifers first and then the cows. It’s nice to have the heifers half calved before the cows, as this gives us time to focus on them. All the heifers were synchronised with AI straws this year.”

College: “I am in fourth year of Agricultural Science in University College Cork. This year we are mainly in Moorepark and have lectures on grass-based dairy farming. Fourth year has probably been the best so far, because all the bits we have learned tie together.”

Milk prices: “We are hoping [prices] will go up, we are supplying all our milk to Lakelands. The price setting is out of our control, but we will have to keep an eye on costs and keep them down.”

Ireland’s Fittest Family: “We won it in 2023, it was my brother Daniel that signed us up to take part. We had Donncha O’Callaghan as our coach. He’s great fun but also strategic and tactical. It was enjoyable for us but also very challenging and we were just delighted that we won.”

Future plans: “I might go farming in America for the summer but after that, farming at home will depend on if there’s an opportunity to get more land.”