“It’s Gigginstown with a soft ‘G’, like gin and tonic,” Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary tells me as we sit down in Ryanair headquarters in Dublin.

O’Leary remains something of a flamboyant figure in the farm community. He is seen by some farmers as a fly-by-night, with more money than sense when it comes to breeding, reputedly once having spent £25,000 on a bull, but O’Leary grew up on a farm in Cork, and has a real passion for Angus cattle.

Listen to "Michael O’Leary on his Gigginstown sale" on Spreaker.

One of the highest earners in the country, he recently featured in the Forbes billionaire list with an estimated personal fortune of $1.1bn (€890m).

The envy of many farmers, he has the money to back some of his more eccentric breeding schemes, regularly flying cows across the Atlantic at one time. A feat yet to be undertaken by his company Ryanair.

There’ll be less 20ac and 30ac farms in the next generation, but there’ll be less farmers because less people will want to farm

He has been the chief executive of Ryanair since 1994, but bought the Gigginstown farm just outside Mullingar in 1993, and his pedigree Angus herd has taken off, enjoying a 100% clearance rate at last year’s sale.

However, this interview is essentially an Angus and a Hereford breeder talking cows.

Question: If you had horses going to a race I’d ask for tips; you’ve got heifers and bulls going into a ring, should I look out for any in particular if I do decide to come to the Gigginstown sale?

Michael O’Leary: You should come! There’s free parking, free bouncy castles, free facepainting, even free seating, it’s not even allocated. And the Grand National winner Tiger Roll will be on show with his trophy. Plus you need to raise your sights above the humdrum Hereford!

Are you happy with the stock this year, do you think they’ve improved?

The bulls and the heifers this year will be the first catalogue where they’re all four or five stars and we have focused quite heavily on the new star grading system. All of the stock we have for sale this year are four or five star.

Do you get annoyed when you see the €uro-Star valuations going up and down?

That’s the challenge with it – when you see stars going up and down it becomes a bit more, ‘how real is this?’ But if that’s what customers want and if that’s what dairy farmers want to see then we’ll give them five stars. If, in three or four years’ time, they want to see more Red Angus, we’ll have more Red Angus.

Are you worried, with milk prices going down, that the money won’t be there to buy Angus bulls?

What the dairy farmers still want is easy-calving bulls. There are two reasons for buying Angus:

1. They’re easy calving on the dairy herd.

2. You then have a crop of calves coming along that you can sell into the certified Angus beef programme, where there’s a premium for the Angus meat.

Is the premium big enough?

No, we all think the premium should be bigger. But the market for Angus beef is growing all the time and I think consumers, particularly in supermarkets, are beginning to appreciate Angus beef.

As part of the next CAP, the European Budget Commissioner has suggested cuts to farm payments of 5% to 10%. What do you think about that?

It’s very difficult to justify the subsidisation of higher food prices within the European Union. While it’s happening fine, as one of the biggest taxpayers in Ireland, I see no reason not to let it continue, but ultimately you have to accept that it’s doomed.

People and the population of Europe want cheaper food, and they will be forced to compete with lower food imports from places like New Zealand.

There’ll be less 20ac and 30ac farms in the next generation, but there’ll be less farmers because less people will want to farm. The units will have to get bigger and the cost of production will have to get lower.

Michael O'Leary being interviewed by Hannah Quinn-Mulligan at Ryanair headoffice in Swords, Co. Dublin (photo: Philip Doyle)

Farmers still have to get paid for what they produce. Even you said the premium wasn’t high enough for Angus?

I always say the premium isn’t high enough, we always want to be paid more. But the reality is that I think the successful farmers of the future will be those young kids, coming out of college now, both male and female, who are much more technologically literate.

You have four kids, would you tell them they could make money out of farming?

No. I think it’s important to be real. The only way to make money out of farming is to have a big income stream from some other activity and then go farming. The kids are 12, 11, eight and seven. We would encourage them to become whatever it is they want to become.

Michael O'Leary being interviewed by Hannah Quinn-Mulligan at Ryanair headoffice in Swords, Co. Dublin (photo: Philip Doyle)

Michael O'Leary being interviewed by Hannah Quinn-Mulligan. \ Philip Doyle

So if you could only have your horses or cattle, which one would make money?

Horses would make money, but I’d prefer to have the cattle. I love the cattle.

What do you think of the trend towards veganism, is it going to threaten farming?

It’s a fad and it’s a nonsense. If you look at the explosion in the world population we’re going to have to be able to produce more food and meat is one of the greatest sources of protein that there is.

Everybody should be entitled to make their own life choices but thankfully my children’s favourite food is fillet steak or fillet of beef on a Sunday. Angus steak, not Hereford.

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