Joe Patton, Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer at Teagasc joins Catherine Egan on this week’s Beef Edge podcast to discuss what beef farmers should be looking out for next spring when it comes to sourcing quality calves for their beef system.
There have been big changes in dairy herd numbers in the past few years, with 1.6 million dairy cows expected to calve down in 2023. While 30% will be retained as replacements, 70% of them will be split between exports and reared on Irish farms to beef.
There are many aspects to be considered when sourcing calves. Up until now the visual assessment was one of the few tools a beef farmer had. But the new Commercial Beef Value (CBV) will be a help to farmers next spring in sourcing calves.
There can be huge genetic variation with the breed of calves not to mention comparison across the breeds. Since 2010 there has been a 10% increase in the proportion of cattle slaughtered of dairy origin from 47% in 2010 to 57% in 2020.
The Teagasc Dairy conference will take place on Tuesday, 6th December in the Rochestown Park Hotel, Cork and on Thursday, 8th December in the Mullingar Park Hotel, Westmeath. Both conferences begin at 10am.
Further details can be found here:
For more episodes from the Beef Edge podcast, visit the show page at:
https://www.teagasc.ie/thebeefedge
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