My name is Patrick Delaney. I am 11 years old. My parents’ names are Stephen and Martina and I have three brothers as well. Our farm is in north Kilkenny. I like to help my dad on the farm. Sometimes my brothers help too. We are calf-to-beef and weanling-to-beef farmers. Whenever I can, I go down on the farm, after school or all day on the weekends. During the summer holidays, I spend a lot of time farming.

My favourite time on the farm is spring, because I like to help with feeding all the calves. I also like summer because I like looking at all the tractors and trailers going past. My favourite job on the farm is feeding the cattle. My job when feeding the cattle is taking the plastic off the bales and then taking the netting off.

When I’m feeding the calves, I have to fill the buckets with warm water. Then I put milk powder in the buckets and stir the milk powder. I pour the buckets into the milk feeders. Sometimes, we have to help new calves to drink off the feeder.

As well as feeding the calves, we make sure they have clean water and a fresh straw bed every week.

My favourite time on the farm is spring, because I like to help with feeding all the calves

I like going to marts with my dad whenever I can. The marts I go to are Thurles, Templemore and Roscrea. We buy calves, weanlings and cattle. We buy all sorts of breeds of cattle. I like looking at all the cattle in the mart before the sale. During the mart, I watch the cattle coming into the ring.

At the end of the sale, I help my dad find any cattle we bought and help him load them for home. Sometimes I collect the blue cards from the mart office.

My favourite cattle breed is Speckle Park. Speckle Parks are originally from Canada. They can be white, blue and white, red and white or black and white. They are a good beef breed and they are polled (without horns).

I bought my first Speckle Park heifer calf in 2018 and she has had two calves herself so far. We have other Speckle Park sucklers as well. They are a very quiet breed and you can pet them and some you can even hug!

I go to school in Galmoy National School. I am in fifth class. In my spare time, I play sports with my friends. My favourite sport is hurling. A few of my friends like farming too and we always chat about what is happening on our farms. I would like to be a farmer when I grow up.