200 farmers wanted for earlier finishing research project
Over 200 beef farmers will have the opportunity to partake in the recently launched Beef-Quest research project. Along with identifying the barriers to achieving an earlier age of finish for beef cattle nationally, participating farmers can avail of a range of benefits.
These benefits include weight performance monitoring and forage analysis.
Dr Paul Smith, project lead on Beef-Quest and Research Officer in the Teagasc Climate Centre, explained: “We are currently searching for farmers to participate in Beef-Quest. Through the capture of on-farm data, we hope to identify the pitfalls and develop strategies to achieve a younger age of finish for beef cattle nationally.”
Reducing the mean finishing age of the ‘prime’ beef cattle population to 22-23 months of age by 2030 is one of the main greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies for the Irish beef sector. Earlier finishing of beef cattle not only has the potential to decrease the quantity of GHG emissions (predominantly methane – CH4) an animal emits over their lifetime, but can be economically advantageous, by lowering total costs associated with rearing an animal, and thus is a key contributor to on-farm profitability.
Although Irish beef farmers have made some progress in reducing the age of finish over the past 15 years, Dr Smith explained there is still a considerable journey to go to achieve the abovementioned target.
“Currently, he added, “the national mean age at finishing is some three-six months older than achieved on high-performing, grass-based, commercial and beef research farms. To achieve a reduction in finishing age, there is an urgent need to identify and quantify the key factors currently impeding Irish beef farms from achieving potential live weight targets.
“Understanding the large variation in the lifetime animal performance on Irish beef cattle farms is a key focus of the Teagasc lead Beef-Quest project, a recently funded project by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. In collaboration with ICBF and UCD, this project will use data currently available within the industry to map the lifetime live weight gain performance of the national beef herd.”
On the uptake of the project to date, Dr Smith said: “Although the reception we have received from farmers has been great since we launched the project at BEEF2024 in Teagasc Grange, we still have a number of places available and I would like to encourage farmers willing to participate to make contact.
“Places are available to drystock farmers carrying beef animals to finish, but we also have the scope to include a small number of dairy farmers who are operating integrated systems or are carrying their calves from birth through to finish.”
Benefits
Benefits for signing up to the project include free live weight recording of growing cattle (weighing conducted at key stages over the animal’s lifetime), forage analysis as well bench mark reporting of your farm’s performance with that of other farms within the programme. Regular live weight recording of growing cattle is the only way to accurately monitor the live weight gain performance of growing cattle, so why not avail of free live weight recordings as part of the Beef-Quest project.
More information
To express an interest in getting involved in Beef-Quest and to learn more about the project, contact Dr Paul Smith at paul.smith@teagasc.ie or contact your local Teagasc advisor.