I farm: “80ac of owned land with my wife Laura and our twins Darragh and Cian, with more land rented. The grazing block is 95ac and I have further supporting land for heifers, dairy-beef stock and tillage. The farm is just four miles from Carrigaline, not far from the popular beach at Fountainstown. We milk 120 Holstein Friesian cows all calving down in spring.”

Tillage: “We grow 6ac of fodder beet, 14ac of maize and 16ac of spring barley all on rented land. The rotation between these crops works well for us. We harvested the maize last week and got a great yield of 18t/ac. We also made use of the weather to get some grass that we had been zero grazing for the cows baled into silage.”

Dairy-beef: “I sell the Friesians as calves but keep the Angus calves to run on as stores. It has been a great year for beef, even though it is long overdue at this stage. I got €2.70/kg for the cull cows recently and have some of the stores to ready sell now. I would be optimistic selling the cattle this year with the way the trade has been going.”

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Machinery work: “My two brothers farm too; each are out on their own. That means that we can come together to do our own silage. All work apart from harvesting the beet, harvesting the maize and hedge cutting is done between the three of us. It works out well when we can come together to get the jobs done over the year.”

2025: “It has been a decent year for farming. The weather has been good to us, although it did get quite dry here at times. The weather really helped the maize yield strong this year.”

Mixed farming: “Between the cows, the barley, the beet and the maize, there is always something different going on down on the farm. I like the variety having a bit of everything brings.”