I farm: “With my family. My wife Ita does a lot of the accounts. Kevin is in college and he’s home at the weekends. He does a lot of the book work like picking bulls, profit monitor, grass measuring, milk recording. The girls, Emily, Ciara and Aoife, are a good help too. It helps the morale when it’s down or when you hit bad weather.”

The land: “Is mixed. We have about 60ac and the rest is leased. There is some good land, but there are wet and boggy areas.”

Cows: “We have a 12-unit Pearson parlour and milk 73 cows. We started milking in 2018. Before that, we were suckling. At least you’ve an income every month and you’ve a routine. The first year, we milked 35 and then we went up to 50. In 2022, we leased land and went up to 73. I’m happy with where we are now.”

Milk recording: “We milk record five times a year. The last recording showed we had one cow with a high cell count, so it wasn’t too bad.”

Silage: “We got our first cut on 19 May and got seven bales to the acre. We are feeding some of it now, to slow the rotation. We got slurry out and will be taking the second cut around 15 July. That’ll be for the pit.”

Grass: “We are tight enough for grass at the moment. We follow the paddocks with fertiliser. We are using protected urea for a few years; it works well. We buy small amounts as we need it.”

Organics: “A lot around us are going into organics and they’re getting a load of money for doing nothing, and the people working are getting no money. They’re holding up the land for people who want it to feed more cows. I think it’ll settle again because they’re going to need food.”