A farmer who owns possibly the largest herd of Dexter cattle in the world, with over 650 head, is set to feature on this week’s Ear to the Ground.

Tonight’s episode will also visit carriage drivers in New York and a bakery business in Co. Mayo.

Helen Carroll will visit an ambitious city slicker turned farmer, Eavaun Carmody, who decided to move her young family from the centre of Dublin to the middle of the country in 2009.

Along with taking on a massive restoration project of an old castle just outside Cashel in Co. Tipperary, Carmody also ventured into beef farming on quite a large scale.

Now Carmody has built up probably the largest herd of the rare Dexter breed in the world, in the village where they were originally bred.

But it is not only the meat from the Dexters which Carmody uses, but every part of them, from their horns to their hoofs.

Helen met Carmody at her home, Killenure Castle, to find out more about their entrepreneurial farmer.

Meanwhile, Darragh McCullough jetted off to the Big Apple to talk with some of the drivers of horse drawn carriages on the city’s streets.

For the past 30 years, Leitrim native Conor McHugh has been driving a horse carriage on the streets of New York and he is just one of many Irish horse lovers engaged in that iconic tourist trade.

However, the carriage drivers have just seen off a political threat to their livelihood as New York mayor Bill de Blasio sought to deliver on a campaign promise to ban the carriages from the city streets.

But a wave of support from the public left city councillors with no option but to allow the drivers and their carriages to work away.

Darragh spent a day with McHugh and visited the 100-year-old cooperative owned stables where the horses sleep upstairs.

Back on Irish shores, Ella Mc Sweeney will travel to Lousiburg in Co. Mayo to find out about Clew Bay Cookies.

The business was started up by Lisa Mc Cann, who is originally from Limavaddy in Co. Derry, after she moved home from the US with her husband and two young children.

As well as talking about cookies, Ella will also look at the importance of keeping jobs in rural Ireland.

Ear to the Ground will be aired on RTE 1 at 8.30pm tonight and will also be repeated on Sunday.