Sourcing and finishing of high-quality dairy-beef animals key focus of DairyBeef 500 webinar
Are your planning to commence a dairy-beef enterprise in 2025 or looking to refine your skills on calf sourcing and finishing? DairyBeef 500 Advisor, Gordon Peppard previews an insightful webinar set to take place on January 16, 2025.
The Teagasc DairyBeef 500 team, along with industry stakeholders, and programme farmers, will host a live online webinar on Thursday, 16th January 2025, which will commence at 8pm.
This webinar will equip anyone thinking of rearing calves in 2025 with essential information on calf sourcing, identifying calves of higher genetic merit and growth potential, and will discuss the key factors in maximising performance in the finishing period.
Targeted predominantly at the dairy calf to beef producer, Chris Daly, ICBF, will look at sourcing high quality calves from the dairy herd to be reared and finished as beef animals. He will outline key elements in the Commercial Beef Value (CBV) for each animal, and the key figures to look out for when purchasing calves from the dairy herd in order to identify calves with higher genetic merit and therefore better growth potential to maximise performance.
Also, on the night we will hear from DairyBeef 500 farmer, James O’Sullivan who will outline his own experience of buying higher genetic merit calves from the dairy herd using the CBV tool. The performance details of these animals throughput their lifetime and at finish will be discussed.
Finally, as many farmers will currently be finishing heifers and steers out of the shed, Teagasc Nutritionist, Aisling Claffey will look at maximising performance of these finishing animals. She will cover key diet parameters to maximise daily weight gain, and to minimise stress and digestive upsets in the finishing period.
A live panel discussion will conclude the webinar, with presenters and programme farmers available to give their views and opinions. Viewers will also have the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered on the night.
For further information on the DairyBeef 500 Campaign, click here.