I farm: “A midsized dairy herd on the Galway Offaly border in Clonfert Co Galway. I farm along with my father Kieran, and we have about 65 to 70 acres with a spring-calving herd.”

Off farm: “We supply Arrabawn co-op and my father has been milking here for about 40 years or so. I work off farm as well as an engineer. I did the farm apprenticeship scheme after college but went back to college to become an engineer.”

Cow performance: “The latest text I got from Arrabawn told me that the protein is 3.6% and the butterfat is 5.42%. That’s fairly creamy stuff! The cows are all British Friesian and Holstein.”

CellCheck Awards: “Our cell count is very low alright. The latest result has us at 31,000 which puts us in the top 10 in the country. To be honest, I’d be happy to be anywhere under 100,000 so we’re delighted with that. We’re off to collect an award next Tuesday in Dublin for that.”

Low cell count secret: “I’ve no idea what the secret is to be honest! I suppose we keep a pretty young herd. We don’t breed from every cow – we select the best cows and breed from them. Cleanliness is key too. I’d clean the cubicles twice or three times a day some days. All that has helped.”

Expansion: “We zero-graze so we could potentially go to 100 cows. It would have to be around that to make it worthwhile leaving the job. Then you have to contend with getting more labour units at the size of a herd.”

Family: “As I said, I farm along with my father and I have one brother and two sisters.”

Quotable quote: “Keep everything you do simple and straightforward. If your system is simple then you can’t really go wrong.”