DairyBeef 500 Webinar, January 30th 2024.

This is the second in a series of two webinars hosted by the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 team along with stakeholders and programme farmers on preparing for successful calf rearing this spring.
With many calves arriving on dairy farms in the coming weeks, many of these calves will be moved and reared on specialist dairy calf to beef rearing farms. On this webinar we will focus on sourcing and feeding of theses dairy bred calves this spring.
Tommy Cox, Teagasc Dairy Beef programme advisor, looked at the whole area of sourcing calves and what farmers require in a good calf at purchase, he also gave an insight into the new Commercial Beef Value tool that is now available to select calves based on their genetic potential.
Eric Driver, Tullow mart manager gave a very honest and open interview with Fergal Maguire on how the new Commercial Beef Value would work at mart level and gave his opinions on how this would play out in the calf market.
Liam Gannon, Volac Milk Replacers Ireland, gives an overview of what specifications are required in a good milk replacer and he also outlined the advantages and disadvantages of teat and automatic milk feeders.
Charlie Smyth, one of the DairyBeef500 programme farmers from Co. Cavan outlined his farming system and described how he selects calves to purchase and how he feeds them through the rearing phase.
For further information on the DairyBeef500 program please go to www.teagasc.ie