I farm: “240 ewes, 120 hoggets and 25 sucklers on 150ac, with another 120ac outfarm in barley. We have 20ac in forestry as well. I farm with my wife Florence, and my mam and dad help when they can, Mervin and Gladys.”

Sheep: “We’ve had full-pedigree Llyen since 2011. We used to have 300 Suffolk and Texel crosses. With the Llyen, you’d be weaning good numbers, 1.85 (per ewe). We lambed a bit later this year, the first week of April.”

Weaning: “We’ll wean everything in three weeks. They’re just on grass and I might look at putting them on creep soon, just to give them a little bit of a kick. The tops of them are nearly ready, but most of them would be half way through. I keep all my own replacements and sell surplus off-farm. We keep the best rams for sale and the rest go to Irish Country Meats, Navan.”

Sucklers: “The cows are spring calving, March and April. They’re Limousin and a few Speckle Parks and I put them to a Red Angus bull. He’s still with them. They throw a nice roan calf off the Speckle Park. Most of them will go as weanlings.”

Grass: “I’m just topping off paddocks this week and keeping the ewes and lambs moving. Grass is doing well at the moment. I have fertiliser bought but it’s not out yet. Prices have come back a little bit, but it’d be great to get them back a little bit more. I put in a multi-species sward last year. It came on well and worked away in the dry weather. The ewes did well on it. I took one cut of silage and it’s recovering well now. We have it closed for the lambs when they’re weaned.”

Wool: “Most of us here can’t get a price for wool. All they’re saying is they’ll come collect it but we’ll get nothing. Some of the co-ops aren’t even taking it. I’ve mine here in the yard and I don’t know what I’ll do.”