We farm: “In Drumlegga in Cloone, which is in south Co Leitrim.”

System: “We’re a suckler system. We have 15 cows, half of which are pedigrees. The pedigree cattle are Limousin, while the commercial cattle are a mix of Charolais, Limousin and the odd Blonde.”

Pedigree: “All of the pedigree cattle go back to one cow. She was an embryo cow out of Ulysse. I think that bull was born in 1983, or around then. We sold a bull at the weekend in Carrick-on-Shannon at the sale of Charolais and Limousin pedigrees. The bull has found a new home in Crossmolina, Co Mayo.”

Price: “Look, the price wasn’t bad, but you can always do better.”

Fodder: “We were lucky that we had fodder left over from the previous year, which means we should be fine until the middle of April. We’re feeding a 15% fodder stretcher from Paul & Vincent too. It’s good quality and it’s helping preserve the silage.”

Financial impact: “This is the first year that I’ve had to dip into the farm payments to feed cattle in 30 years. It’s getting harder to farm with the wet summers we’ve had.”

Forestry: “There’s a lot of forestry in Leitrim now. The McCabes came to Drumlegga 100 years ago next year and the farm has been in family three generations, going into its fourth generation. There’ll be no forestry here.”

Education: “I did journalism in DIT and animal behaviour and psychology. But I’ve always wanted to farm.”

Animal names: “All the animals have names. The names are based on how they might look or what their personality is, or if they have character. It’s the same as a dog, you give a dog a name that suits their personality.”

Family: “There’s us and my brother, Brian, is in Estonia. He’s a great help on the machinery when he’s home and my mother Marie is a great help too.”

Quotable quote: “Suckler cows are under pressure, but Leitrim will be the last county to give up the sucklers. We fight hard to farm on hard land, we’re not going to stop that easy.”