I farm: “Just under 160ha in partnership with my dad David and 60% of it is rented. We have 345 spring-calving, Jersey-cross cows, 73 in-calf heifers and 78 replacement heifers. They averaged 16 litres, 3.73% protein and 4.63% fat last year.

TB: “We’ve been locked up with TB since May and we were locked up in 2021 too. The badger vaccination programme just isn’t enough. They [the Department] are not vaccinating enough badgers and it’s taking over. We tested on Tuesday so we are hoping for good news on Friday.”

Calving: “We’ll start to calve on 29 January and have 360 to calve down. All the heifers will calve first and after a week the cows will start.”

Breeding: “Last year we used 100% AI. We used 140 sexed semen straws and all the heifers got it for the first round. Anything we didn’t want replacements from got a beef straw from day one.”

At the moment: “We’re training the heifers to get used to the parlour. We’re also disinfecting sheds for the second time. This year we didn’t dry off all the cows so we are still milking 85.”

Reseeding:”We try to reseed every year but the drought hit us bad last year and we couldn’t afford to take a paddock out as we usually reseed in autumn. We stitch in clover every year to try and reduce our fertiliser usage. We also put in red clover for silage this year.”

Study: “I’m doing a level seven in agriculture in Dundalk IT which is a two-year part-time course.

Partnership: “I loved my job as a nurse but I wanted to make a future in farming. The decision to go into partnership was mainly to give me more responsibility and a sense of ownership. I have two older brothers and a younger sister who have no interest in farming.”

Quotable quote: “I wasn’t working when I was farming, it didn’t feel like work. I was going back to Dublin to work.”