We farm: “200ac organically including 15ac of forestry across three blocks with a stocking rate of 1.5 livestock units/ha.”

This week: “We baled 50ac of hay on Monday evening and we’re delighted with how it went. The weather wasn’t great but it made 270 good quality 550kg square bales and we’ll save another 20ac of silage off rougher grass in September.”

Cattle: “Our 35 sucklers are Stablisers. We first read about the breed in the Irish Farmers Journal and bought our first bull 10 years ago. They’re a hardy breed and fatten up off grass. We’ve no calving jack or cameras and haven’t pulled a calf in six years. They calve from 1 April and we get them straight out to grass. Our philosophy is to keep everything simple and to work with the seasons. We finish everything to 30 months so we have about 120 cattle on farm at present. They’re slaughtered through Good Herdsmen and go to Germany as organic beef.”

Sheep: “Our 180 Romney ewes lamb fully outdoors in April. The lambs are reared off grass and sold from September to March. We’ve resown 20ac of mixed species sward for the last five years and it works well for the lambs. We sell through the Offaly producer group to Irish Country Meats with the 15% organic premium. Our lamb prices between January and March averaged €181.”

Organics: “It was a huge decision to convert 10 years ago. Pippa was the instigator and I said I’d try it. It was the best move we’ve ever made and it’s renewed our interest in agriculture. We have more stock now than we had 10 years ago. We stopped spending on fertiliser and we invested in reseeds.”

Quotable quote: “We believe in good-quality breeding stock. An ounce of breeding is worth a tonne of feeding and with rising inputs, it’s more relevant than ever before.”