Moorepark 21

Moorepark Open Day 2021

Moorepark ’21 - Delivering Sustainability

The Teagasc Moorepark Open Day 2021 Day took place on Tuesday 14th, Wednesday 15th & Thursday, 16^th September 2021. It was repeated over the three days to ensure compliance with government Covid-19 guidelines. The event consisted of a planned onsite event and also a virtual event on Wednesday.

View Virtual Event | Open day main boards videos | Listen to the open day podcasts | This is Dairying Photo Competition Finalists 2021

Open Day Booklet

Download Moorepark Open Day Booklet 2021 - Irish Dairying - Delivering Sustainability (PDF) 25.4 MB

Open Day topics included:

strategies to increase farm efficiency and profitability
grassland management and nutrient use efficiency
The Signpost Programme
DairyBeef 500 campaign
dairy cow breeding
developing a Great Farm Workplace

Virtual Events

Wednesday September 15th, 7pm - Industry Forum

An industry forum was broadcast live from the Moorepark21 Open Day venue on the challenges and opportunities facing the Irish dairy industry.

Facilitated by Sharon Ní Bheoláin from RTÉ, the panel discussion featured:

Professor Gerry Boyle, Director of Teagasc;
John Jordan, Chief Executive of Ornua;
Marie Donnelly, Chairperson of Climate Change Advisory Council
Padraig Walshe, dairy farmer

The Dairy Edge Podcast at Moorepark '21

An episode of The Dairy Edge podcast was released on each day of Moorepark '21. Emma-Louise Coffey was joined by special guests to discuss topics of interest to dairy farmers. Listen back below

Leading reproductive technologies; have they a role to maximise your herds potential?

Stephen Butler joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast with an insight into the Sexed Technologies lab that will be established in Moorepark later this year to provide a semen sorting service open to all AI companies. This offers the potential for a greater number and elite bulls

How will the new Nitrates policy impact on your farm business?

Jack Nolan, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine joins Emma-Louise Coffey on the Dairy Edge to explain the measures proposed for the new Nitrates Derogation and challenges for farmers and industry as to how they can minimise negative environmental impacts

Making your milking process more labour and energy efficient

John Upton, Ryan Prendergast and Fergal Buckley from Teagasc discuss the milking and energy use efficiency of herringbone and rotary parlours.

Tune into and listen to past episodes of The Dairy Edge:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Spotify
Or you can listen by visiting www.teagasc.ie/thedairyedge

Watch it back - Moorepark21

If you couldn't attend the Teagasc Dairy Open Day, Moorepark21, you can view the welcome board and the four main boards below:

Pat Dillon welcomes attendees to Moorepark21 with an overview of the strengths, challenges, opportunities and solutions facing the Irish dairy industry and outlines what they can expect to see on their way around the site. Watch below.

Grass based systems of milk production have a huge role in sustainable ruminant production globally and in reality should play an even greater role in the provision of ruminant products in the future. Below you can watch back Brendan Horan deliver a talk to farmers on the sustainability credentials of the Irish dairy industry or read the corresponding paper here: Delivering on Sustainability - Laurence Shalloo/Brendan Horan.

The key focus in terms of achieving profitable milk production should be on improving pasture growth and utilisation and matching stocking rate to the amount of grass grown. Investing in technologies that reduce environmental footprint such as incorporating white clover in grass swards, slurry storage, soil fertility etc.. will result in profitable and sustainable dairy farms. Watch back Padraig French as he discusses achieving profitable milk production from Moorepark21. You can read the corresponding paper on Profitable Milk Production here: Profitable Milk Production Systems

It is anticipated that the uptake and usage of sexed semen will increase markedly in the coming years, which will facilitate a simultaneous increase in the usage of high DBI beef bulls on all dams that are not required to generate replacements. This will have the welcome effect of markedly reducing the number of male dairy calves and increasing the number of beef-cross calves born. In vitro embryo production is a viable technology for seasonal calving systems, and will become an important tool to accelerate genetic gain in both dairy breeds and beef breeds suitable to crossing with dairy dams. Watch back this talk from Donagh Berry from Moorepark21 on sustainable breeding. Find the paper on Sustainable Breeding here: Sustainable Breeding

Developing N fertiliser management plans, more grassland measurement and better grassland management, making better use of slurry and incorporating white clover on farm can all contribute to reduce N fertiliser use, maintenance of herbage production, improved herbage quality and an increase in farm NUE. Watch back Mick O'Donovan and Mike Egan from Moorepark21 delivering a talk on grazing management to increase nitrogen use efficiency. Read the paper here: Grazing Management to increase N use efficiency