The farm: “I’m farming with my dad, my brother Stephen and Keith Wilson, who has been with us for 30 years. We’re running a tillage and beef operation. We have 50 suckler cows, buy in 150 dairy calves and some beef weanlings. Everything is fattened, we slaughter around 300 head a year. We also do all our own concrete work and shed-building ourselves, Keith takes charge of that.”

Tillage: “We sowed nine crops this year, winter and spring barley, wheat, oats, beans, oilseed rape, maize, beet and also mustard seed for the first time. We’d rent quite a bit of land. We’re farming over 1,000ac, with 150ac in grass, and the rest in tillage. Of that we own almost half.”

Autumn planting: “We’ve just finished autumn planting with 200ac sowed. The working conditions were great all year, for planting, harvest and drilling, but prices have been disappointing.”

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My other job: “I have been lecturing in Land and Agricultural Science in Carlow Institute of Further Education, but I’ve stepped away for now due to other work pressures. I teach agricultural science in Yeats College in Waterford.”

Future for beef farming: “While prices are buoyant, we are seeing the effect of South American and Australian imports on the UK market. I’d like to see family farms encouraged to finish beef, with a targeted measure of €100 for the farms finishing 50 or less cattle. I’d also like to see the use of native grain encouraged in this scheme.”

GAA:“It’s been a busy year for our local club, Rathnure St Annes. We reached the county finals, including our first senior final since 2011. I was a member of the senior panel, and am also club secretary, so it was a hectic time. We’re a young panel; I’m 26 and most of the team are younger than me. We’ve a great tradition, we’ve reached five All-Ireland finals, and are the home of the Rackards and Quigleys, legendary hurlers.”

Nuffield: ”In 2024 I was selected as a Nuffield Scholar. I chose to study ‘Improving the competitiveness and sustainability of beef in an era of globalisation’. I will be presenting my findings at the annual conference next week. I’m looking forward to that, a lot of work has gone into it.”