My Farming Week: Tommy Riggs-Miller, Tullaheady, Nenagh, Co Tipperary

I farm: “108ha of a grazing platform and we also have around 5ha planted with trees; it’s almost 20 years old now. Fergus O’Shea is my right-hand man here and has been working as farm manager since 1998.There are cows here for the best part of 60 years and my mother Nancy really was the driving force. She was very particular in how things were done.”

Cows: ”We’re milking just over 100 cows; they’re mostly British Friesian crosses with a small bit of Norwegian Red. We’re happy enough with current numbers and we’re not overly stocked.”

Calving: ”We start calving at the very end of January and things would be fully wrapped up in eight weeks. We have farm relief during calving a couple of days a week to lend an extra hand.”

Breeding: ”I do the AI myself and we have a Hereford and Angus stock bull to mop up. While it’s mostly Friesian AI, I do some beef too. I’ve done some sexed semen and will probably do more in the future.”

Calves: ”We keep all the beef calves, as well as any male Friesians for their first winter and sell them the following summer in the mart in Nenagh. They really were a great price this year and milk price has been good also.”

Environment: ”We like to be environmentally friendly where we can, planting hedgerows and trees and using protected urea. We milk record also four times a year, James Cleary from Kilruane does it for us and the data has helped us be more selective when drying off cows.”

Horses: ”My mother bred a few successful National Hunt horses too. Bit Of A Skite won the Irish National for JP McManus trained by the late Edward O’Grady.”

Veterinary: ”I’ve really enjoyed my career as a vet and my son John is also a vet. He’s in Melbourne at the minute, working with racehorses mainly.”