Roscommon farmers feature in Teagasc National Beef Conference
By Sean Doorley,
Beef Advisor,
Teagasc Longford.
The Teagasc National Beef Conference takes place next Tuesday December 13th in The Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. The conference will run from 6.00pm, split in two sessions. The first session is titled ‘Key enablers to improving sustainability on beef farms’. Dr. Colin Byrne, Beef Researcher, Teagasc Grange will discuss reducing the age at first calving for suckler cows which is a key profit driver. Future Beef Programme farmer Shane Keaveny, Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon calves his heifers at 24 months and will describe how he achieves target weight for age and gets his heifers in calf to calve at 24 months. Shane operates a suckler beef system comprising with the male calves finished as under 16 months bull beef.
‘Has red clover a role in your beef production system?’ will be discussed in detail by Beef Researchers, from Teagasc Grange Dr. Nicky Byrne and Peter Doyle. Martin Connolly, Dairy Beef 500 Farmer from Castleplunket, Co. Roscommon operates a calf to bull beef system. In recent years one of Martin’s main aims is improving his animal performance without increasing levels of concentrate input. Martin will be part of a panel discussion and to describe how he has gone about incorporating red cover on his farm and his experience to date.
Dr. Paul Crosson, Beef Enterprise Leader, Teagasc Grange will assess the potential to improve technical performance and profitability for beef cattle production. This will be followed by Dr. Natascha Meunier, working with Animal Health Ireland and Programme Manager for Beef Health Check who will outline how to improve animal health to increase liveweight performance.
The second session is titled ‘Delivering sustainability at farm level’ featuring a panel discussion with a variety of contributors sharing their expertise and experience. The Teagasc Beef Conference is free to attend and all are welcome. Further details are available at www.teagasc.ie/beefcon22