The Future Beef Programme
Irish beef farmers already produce a top-quality product, which is exported worldwide. With the support of the Future Beef team*, each farmer will endeavour to increase efficiencies & adopt technologies, new & old, to make beef farming more profitable, environmentally and socially sustainable
Future Beef Advisor Aisling Molloy speaks about the Future Beef Programme
Future Beef is Teagasc’s new suckler beef demonstration farm programme that comes under the umbrella of the Signpost Programme. It comprises of a network of 24 demonstration farms - , the and the Kepak Feedlot in Caulstown, Co. Meath. The farms, positioned across Ireland supported by. Each farm is representative of their region in:
- farm size
- soil type
- production system
- stock numbers etc.
Farm size ranges from 13 hectares to 114 hectares, and the herd size ranges from 12 to 87 suckler cows. The production systems vary between farms and include;
- calf-to-weanling/store
- calf-to-steer/heifer beef
- calf-to-bull (under-16 months of age)/heifer beef
- four are also buying in dairy-bred calves.
Mixed beef and sheep farms are also featured with flock sizes ranging from 50 to 250 ewes, along with two organic farms.
Key objectives:
- Create more sustainable and profitable farms.
- Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia emissions.
- Improve water quality.
- Improve biodiversity.
To achieve these objectives, the main focus areas are:
- Breeding
- Grassland management
- Health
- Financial
- Monitoring
Future Beef farmers will increase efficiencies and adopt technologies, new and old, to make beef farming more profitable, while also making it more environmentally and socially sustainable.
Through farm walks, discussion group visits, press articles, regular updates on the website and social media, the Future Beef programme will show these technologies working on the demonstration farms.
*Martina Harrington, Aisling Molloy, Gabriel Trayers, Colin J. Byrne and Pearse Kelly