I’m farming: “160ac since 1974 with my wife Anne and our family. We have a mixture of sheep and tillage. The land is all owned.”

Sheep: “I have 120 ewes. They are a mixture of lowland Suffolk cross. I lambed the first of January for three weeks.”

Breeding: “I run a teaser and then introduce the rams. I have four Beltex cross rams. I don’t interfere with sponging or anything, we might be longer lambing but it doesn’t matter.”

Fertiliser: ”I spread a very minimal amount of fertiliser every year. A lot of the grazing ground wouldn’t get any fertiliser.”

Hay: “I try to make hay every year, big bales. I find that there is less issues with mould when you aren’t feeding that many. However, if I don’t get the weather it’ll be silage.”

Tillage: “There’s a rotation of winter wheat, beans and spring barley. The final fungicide spray is going on the spring barley at the moment and there’s a head spray to go on. By mid-June I’ll have all the spraying wrapped up and then I’ll just be waiting for harvest. Overall there’s 25ac of winter wheat, 25ac of beans and 68ac of spring barley.”

Show garden designer: “I went looking for a supplementary income when my children hit third level and it was either borrow or earn the money. I started shaping stone. The demand grew so I set up a stone carving business in 1998. I started working with Bloom then.”

Graveyard caretaker: “I’m a caretaker in the natural burial ground in Woodbrook, Co Wexford. It’s the only one in Ireland. The coffins must come from a renewable source and they are not buried as deep as traditional, just 4ft.”

Quotable quote: ”I get up in the morning to see the stock, my father said stock must always come first.”