I farm: “Around 28ac in total, between two Christmas tree farms in Killarney and Killorglin, with my father Nicholas.”

Trees: “We’ve three types of trees. Nordmann firs are the most popular, because it’s the best for not shedding. Then we’ve Frazer firs, which is a different type of popular evergreen conifer tree, and Lodgepole pines, the big bushy ones. It’s good to have some variety for people coming into the farm.”

Growing: “It’s harder harvesting the big trees now; the branches are snapping a bit easier because it was so dry compared to last year. But definitely the trees are way lighter because of that as well.”

Demand: “Hopefully it will pick up soon. Our farm is the only Christmas tree farm in Killarney; there are only two in all of Kerry. There’s no one else with 40ft trees other than one other [farm] in the whole of Ireland, so we’re really specialists in large trees. We erect them too for councils, hotels, all around the country.”

Challenges: “Labour costs, fertilisers, petrol... they’ve all gone up, so obviously we’ve had to put our prices up a small bit as well, and that affects the ordinary man too.”

Sheep: “We have 12 Shropshire sheep to help with weeds. We want to move away from fertilisers and the sheep are a way of naturally doing that.”

This week: “We’re getting the shed ready now and we’re getting the trees out to the wholesalers, the town centres and the hotels. It’s all about the bigger trees or people calling into the shed early after the Toy Show is on.”