I’m married: “To Carmel and we have two in family: Genevieve who’s graduated in law and Mark who’s studying in Trinity. They’re home at the weekends and both show a good interest in the land and the stock.”

I’m farming: “Around 400ac in total which would be made up of 260ac owned and 160ac of rented. I have a mixture of very good, high, dry land and then the land around home is heavy and more suited to summer grazing.”

Sucklers:”I’m keeping about 140 sucklers and I run two or three pedigree Charolais bulls as well as a pedigree Simmental bull that is used to breed any replacements. The cows are mostly made up of Simmental-cross, Limousin-cross, Angus-cross, Shorthorn and a couple of Aubrac cows. I buy a good long cow, with good signs of milk and good conformation. I do a pretty severe cull on cows and try to buy-in young cows again or heifers in-calf.”

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Weanlings:”All progeny are normally sold at weanling stage – you get into too many cattle other wise. Sixty-five percent would be sold through Roscommon Mart and the remainder are sold at home to return customers.”

Calving:”We have about 30 ‘late calvers’, which would be due in August, September and October. We also have 30 cows calved this month already and the bulk then will calves in February and March and into April.”

Sheep:”I reseed a certain amount of land every spring and I buy 500 or 600 store lambs in the month of July for short-term keep. They do a great job on it.”

Auctioneering:”I sell in Roscommon Mart every Friday and also do all the sales for the Irish Charolais, Simmental, Angus, Shorthorn and Aubrac societies. I also do a number of the breeding sheep sales including Suffolk, Texel, Charolais, Belclare and Vendéen among others. I had a stroke three years ago and recovery is ongoing but the societies were very good to me.”

Quotable quote:”It’s important this time of year with cows calving at night to take one day at a time.”