My farming week: Eoin Purfield, Ballymagarvey, Balrath, Navan, Co Meath

I farm: “About 200ac of spuds and 300ac of cereals alongside my father John here in Co Meath.”

This week: “This week, we are finishing planting potatoes for Tayto crisps. We hope to have everything in the ground by Tuesday morning.”

Potato varieties: “We sow a few different varieties. The main ones would be Lady Clare, Verdi and Beo. The Beo variety will be harvested in late August, early September, and will go straight from the field into the factory for production. We will have to dessicate all the other varieties and they will go into storage after they are harvested from the middle of September through to October.”

Routine checks: “When the spuds are in the ground, the next challenge is to keep on top of routine checks. We will be walking the potatoes and spraying them for blight weekly.”

Diquat: “The loss of diquat is going to be challenging for the potato sector. We are going to have to adapt our nitrogen rates for potatoes so that they have more of a natural senescence. The product that we have to replace it with is called Spotlight Plus – it wouldn’t be as aggressive on the canopy as diquat was.”

Cereals: ”We grow about 300ac of cereals. The majority would go to McAuleys for animal feed. This year, the bulk of our crop would be spring barley, which has struck and is up. We would be hoping for a splash of rain in the next week or so, to give it a kick on.”

COVID-19: “We have to be more careful with our staff and implementing social distancing measures. I am sure that it will have some negative impact on the markets, but it is still early days.”

Quotable quote: ”Planting progress in Meath has been brilliant this year, we have never had as good a run at it so early. In 2018, we had a good run at it in May, but we haven’t had such a good run at it in April for a very long time.”