On Friday, the Irish Farm Building Association held a study tour showcasing the very best practice in the Irish farm buildings industry. The delegation visited Country Crest in Lusk, Co Dublin, where they got to see a very well designed and impressive beef finishing unit. The majority of the feed for the unit is produced and processed on the farm, including potatoes, barley, maize silage and grass silage. Approximately 1,000 heifers are finished per annum in the unit and are killed in Troy’s in Tyrellspass and the meat is marketed by country crest in a range of products for high-end restaurants to multiple retailers.

Next the group visited Irish Custom Extruders, manufacturers of the Comfort Slat Mat. The mats have been in production for over 10 years now and are exported worldwide. Tony Dunne from Comfort Slat Mats said that the mats have a patented design which gives a number of advantages, such as speedy removal of waste to the tank underneath. Its air-cushioned design brings the comfort of outdoors indoors and higher livestock weight gains. The group was shown the rigorous testing procedures being carried out to test the expected longevity of the mats and also new product development.

Veterinary Research Farm

The tour ended in the Department of Agriculture Veterinary Research Farm in Longtown, Clane, Co Kildare. This farm provides animals for the production of positive and negative control tissue and sera for use in various diagnostic procedures at Backweston laboratories. The study group was given a tour of the foundation yard where the minimal disease risk cattle and sheep are kept. These nucleus herds allow offspring of known health status to be produced for research purposes. All the buildings in this yard were built to the Department minimum specifications.