I farm: “In Balinalee Co Longford. I farm 50:50 with my brother, Gerard. I have been farming fulltime for 13 years and we have taken over from my father.”

Land type: The land is actually very good around here, it’s very dry which is a bit unusual for the area. We’d actually be hoping for a bit of rain in the summer.”

System: “We have recently moved from having an autumn calving system to spring calving. We’re starting the new system this year and calving will start at the end of March. We moved to spring calving to get the calves as soon as possible after calving so that we clear up space and cut down on disease in the herd.”

Commercial: “We have about 45 Limousin cows. We hold on to the heifers as stores and sell the bulls as weanlings. All the animals are sold in Granard mart. We buy in a batch of 25 heifers and keep them in and then sell them as stores as well. The bulls all made around €3/kg in the mart last year.”

Pedigree: “We also run a pedigree Limousin herd and have been doing so since 1994. You can take your time, do all the research in the world but have to hope that it all clicks into place for you at the same time.”

Bull: “We got on very well with a bull of mine at a sale in Roscrea last Saturday. The bull’s name was Iceman and he sold for €28,000 to a Scottish breeder by the name of Robert Graham. It takes two though, it’s not enough that I have a good bull, somebody needs to buy it too. There's always ways to spend the money. We're no different to anyone else, you spend money to make money."

Family: “Oliver and Anne are my father and mother and Gerard is my brother.”

Quotable quote: “No matter what type of farm you have or what the market is like, there’s always place for good cattle and good cattle will always get paid a top price.”