'In Scotland you go to the east for a farm, west for wife;

He gave me two Scottish farming sayings that I’ve carried with me to this day and pass off as my own to seem intelligent and well-travelled.

The first: “In Scotland, you go to the east for a farm and to the west for a wife.” The same can be said for Ireland.

The other saying he bestowed on me: “There are only two seasons in farming: preparing for the winter and hoping for the summer.”

More on that later.

My name is Patrick Donohoe, and it’s a pleasure to write about our little farm in The Scottish Farmer.

I farm part-time in Co Longford with my parents Eamon and Lesley. We keep suckler cows, always have done. We tried store lambs a few years ago but they had two ambitions – to break out or die trying. We were far too lazy for the woolly lads.

We run 30 cows, give or take. The cows are a mix of Charolais, Limousin, Simmental and Hereford. This might seem like gardening for the farmers of Scotland and that’s true

– but it’s also approximately double the average suckler herd in Ireland.

We have always run a Charolais bull but we have made the decision to switch to a Limousin bull for ease of calving and to inject a bit more vigour into the calves.

All bulls are sold as weanlings between seven and 10 months old in the local livestock market. A few heifers are kept for breeding each year.

We won’t win any prizes for tight calving patterns. We calve about half in November and December. The other half land into the world between the middle of January and the end of April. Just as I was finishing this sentence, dad called to say the last cow (779) of the year is calving. I’ll let you know how that goes.

A switch of French breeds from white to red might not seem like such a large strategic decision but there is a bit of a risk. The Charolais commands a premium in the ring of Carrigallen Livestock Mart over all other breeds. However, the calving jack can be required a bit too often with the Charolais. Not to mention their vigour can resemble that of a 16-year-old lad in a double physics class for A Levels.

As I work off-farm and my parents are both collecting their pension, we have to treat the farm as part-time and make it work for us.

On the market front, the ship finally came in for the sucklers in the last two years. A 350kg Charolais bull two years ago would do well to make €1000 or €1100. Today that same bull could easily make double that. I don’t think it’ll stave off those who are thinking of exiting the sector due to the returns for the effort put in but it’s great to see some positivity in a sector that has been riddled with bad news for a generation.

The farm is nearly two hours north west of Dublin and about 30 minutes from the border with Northern Ireland. The land type is heavy and boggy in nature. A friend once described the area as ‘bleak and beautiful… like North Korea, only more conservative’.

Our winters are long compared to many parts of the country. On a good year, the cows go inside in early November and out again in early April. On a bad year, that could be extended by a couple of months either side.

We’re finally starting to see the end of a very long winter. We had 50 days of consecutive rain at the start of the year and the spring is only just springing. It has been cold, damp, wet and pretty miserable. Saying that, it’s what we plan for. We make more silage than we need, we have more slurry storage than necessary, and we approach it thinking the winter could be like one in Game of Thrones – long and always coming.

The weather is looking up though and it finally looks like we’re going to get 10 days of a settled spell. It will allow us to finally get slurry out and we can, finally, start to hope for the summer after planning for that long winter.

That Scottish farmer was right – there really are only two seasons!

And if you’re wondering, cow number 779 calved safely. Not much milk but she’s done this nine times before now and got on grand. She knows more than we do.