We farm: “89ha, 100% leased, with a milking platform of 49ha. We have three relief staff: Sarah Ahearne as farm assistant; Aoife O’Leary covered for Aileen when we had our daughter Katie; and Tadhg Foley is a relief milker. We both have off-farm jobs that allow us to be flexible.”

Dairy:“We’re milking 138 cows; we have 28 in-calf heifers, 25 suckler calves and six fat bulls. Back in 2022, we bought the herd off the farmer we leased from, that was Holstein-Friesian. We bought cross-bred cattle from my father’s herd and we’ve been crossbreeding since.

Yields: “We’re trying to get the best of both worlds; milk yield from the Friesian and solids from the Jersey. Aiming for that 50/50 cross.”

Milk: “Quality is good but our herd is still very young. Last year, we did 440kg milk solids which isn’t where we wanted to be, but wasn’t a bad figure either. We’re targeting 500kg/cow.”

Leasing: “It’s so different to owning your own farm. Owning it, there’s no panic or rush because there’s longevity, whereas, we’ve to frontload work like reseeding or putting in parlours because you need to extend that investment over the term of the lease. We could be optimistic and say we’ll be here longer, but the lease is 10 years, we’ve to operate in those parameters.”

Award: “Our story is unique; we’re two young people who decided to go dairy farming by themselves. We’re potentially quite strong in our sustainability and environment side of things. In 2024, we spread 120kg of nitrogen on the milking platform, growing 12.5t.”

This week: “We blanket spread all of our platform once a month. The whole platform got half a bag of 18.6.12 protected. The fact it’s protected means we’re meeting our climate measures and the little bit of P and K to keep the clover tipping along.”