Angela talks about the importance of breeding, producing a cow that lives longer, produces greater quantities of better-quality milk and has beef characteristics – a valuable animal that enables Irish farmers to do more with the same, reducing the carbon hoofprint of each litre of milk delivered.

As Nicole herself says, she’s a bit of a part-time farmer on her grandparents’ farm in Co Cork – but that’s because she’s working on her PhD during the week at college in Waterford. Nicole’s area of study is reducing antibiotic usage in the dairy herd by investigating alternatives, which will have the benefit of preserving high-strength antibiotics for human use, rather than veterinary use. Another angle on dairy sustainability.