On tonight’s episode of Ear to the Ground, the programme visits a 5-star beef finishing unit, a farmer farming with depression and it also looks at malting barley.

Darragh McCullough visits Frank Murphy, the owner and CEO of globally utilised company Monex and beef finisher.

Despite being brought up on a farm, Ear to the Ground finds out that farming was never on Frank’s agenda until he and his wife, Teresa, took over the reigns on her own family farm near Banteer, Co. Cork three years ago.

Frank has gone all out in turning the farm into a 5-star beef finishing unit on an impressive scale, as the show finds out.

Not only that, but he has also installed a robotic feeding system called Maria. Darragh also visits local award-winning butcher, Jack McCarthy, who buys his cattle from the Murphy’s.

Helen Carroll visits Leonie Byrne, a born and raised a city girl through and through.

Ear to the Ground finds out that she was just starting out as a bespoke kitchen designer in 2002 when she met her husband-to-be in a Dublin nightclub.

The last thing Leonie expected was to switch her heels for wellies but that’s exactly what happened when the couple moved to Stephen’s home farm in Carnew, Co. Wicklow.

Following the birth of their five-year-old son Luke, Leonie was diagnosed with post-natal depression caused by a chemical imbalance, subjecting her to daily doses of medication.

The show discovers that she is a remarkable young mother, an ambitious new farmer, and a brave woman, anxious to tell her story.

Ella McSweeney this week visits the Malting Company of Ireland and Midleton Distillery in Cork.

Single malt, double malt, ball of malt- malt is certainly popular with beer and whiskey drinkers; Ear to the Ground finds out what exactly is it, how it’s made and what it does.

The show follows the process which converts barley to the sweet flavour of malt.

Beginning with the specific demands of the barley crop, to the roasting that creates the colour of stout, to the distinctive after-taste of the finest whiskey, Ear to the Ground follows the story of malt.