I farm: “By myself on 40ac, all rented, with a small herd of suckler cows. This is my third year.”

Cows: “I just had heifers and bullocks and I started to buy springer heifers, a couple each year. There are 28 cows in total, a mixture of Limousin and Simmental. The Simmental is a nice docile animal, the Limousin is a wee bit flightier, but I like the look of them. If you’ve got a bull or heifer calf, you’ve a good one for selling compared to the Herefords. Weanling calves are making serious money, the first ones were weighed last month, they’re probably averaging above £3/kg (€3.63/kg), and they’re probably well up on that now.”

Triplets: “I just thought [one of the cows] would have twins. She calved herself, the first and second came fairly quick. I went to get a warm bucket of water and when I came back, she was having the third one. One was sucking straight away, the other two were bottle fed.”

Machinery: “I’m into more classic or modern classic machinery than new. I’ve a 6910 John Deere, 7600 John Deere and a Case Maxxum 5130; that sort of late 90s, early noughties.”

Young farmer: “When you’re calving, it doesn’t work out the way it’s meant to but when you get the likes of [the triplets], it makes it worthwhile. I’m in a young farmer scheme for the next four years. It’s not massive, but you get more information on upcoming events. You’ve to do a four-month course and that allows you to get your own entitlements, business ID, and you get a top up on your single farm payment. You work out 15-20% better off.”

This week: “We put barley in last year to rotate the ground for reseeding. We’re picking the next two fields for this year. We’ll be getting ready for another crop of barley.”