I farm: “With my brother John. We have a bit of everything, cows, beef, Suffolk sheep and tillage.”

Cows: “We’re milking 370 cows at the minute, they would be 70:30 Holstein/British Friesian. We produce liquid milk all year round for Centenary Thurles, it’s Tipperary Fresh non-GMO milk which is a new enough thing and it goes into Dunnes Stores and it will be going into Tesco too in a few months. It’s a niche product but it’s doing well, it’s flying it up in Dublin.”

AI: “260 have got AI already for the spring, I also use sexed semen and I’ll put an Angus and Friesian bull in with them in the first week of June to tidy them up.”

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Buffer feeding: “I’m a feeder on top of the grass, so I’d buffer feed the cows. I use the boluses on all the breeding cows, I used to have the collars for years, they’re like going to a four-star hotel but the boluses are like a five- or six-star hotel, different gravy altogether. It is a cost and everyone has their own way of doing things but I like an easy life and I will spend on it – personally it has taken my business to a different level.”

Silage: “I’m going on a rugby tour to Zebre rugby club in Italy with Cashel RFC on Friday, I’m looking forward to it. The very minute I come back we have 268ac of silage to cut.”

Beef: “We keep a lot of the beef calves up to about 18 months and then sell them on and 30 are kept for pedigree bulls. We have a very good client base there for that. It went well this year, the milk was bad but the beef thing kept us up.”

Tillage: “80ac of open sown maize went in, there’s also 20ac of winter barley, 53ac of spring barley and 80ac of spring wheat and everything we grow goes back into the animals in the winter time. We have a bit of reseeding done as well in the last couple weeks and that’s up nicely.”

Sheep: “My brother John has about 50 breeding Suffolk ewes and he sells all the lambs from them. He looks after them well and goes to all the purebred Suffolk showing sales.”