My name is Stephen Farrell. I live in Lanesborough, Co Longford, and I am 11 years old. I go to Fermoyle National School and my hobbies are playing soccer and Gaelic football. I love to go farming during the week after school and at the weekends with my daddy and grandad.

It has been busy in recent weeks on the farm. My brothers Ronan (15), John (13), along with my sister Laoise (eight) and myself are getting the sheds ready for new calves which will be arriving in March.

We buy in Angus calves at three to four weeks old and keep them until they are two years old.

The week the calves arrive is usually a bit crazy, as they are getting used to seeing us and settling in to their new home. There is always a bit of competition between us to see who gets the best calf each year. We are lucky we have an automatic calf feeder. We have to put special tags in their ears for the feeder when they arrive on the farm.

The most common topic talked about at our dinner table is farming. During the lockdown, Ronan bought and reared two pigs and John reared two pet lambs. The lambs were fed with the calf nuts and the lamb was very tasty afterwards. We never got to taste the pigs.

We also have hens and Ronan recently built a hen house, which I helped him with. We cut timber to fuel the stove at home, and I hope this job will soon be over as the weather improves and there is less need to light a fire in the spring and summer.

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