Over the last few weeks, the Irish Farmers Journal has held four very successful livestock demos in Balla Mart, Co Mayo, Raphoe Mart, Co Donegal, Ennis Mart in Co Clare and Carrigallen Mart, Co Leitrim.

More than 1200 farmers have attended the events.

Last week, the demo headed southwest to Ennis Mart, Co Clare, for another night of specialist presentations and live animal demonstrations and we livestreamed the entire event on farmersjournal.ie and over on the Facebook page.

Watch back the full livestream here:

The event was opened by Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy. Darren Carty from the Irish Farmers Journal livestock team outlined what 2017 has in store for the beef markets and also what the prospects are for the live export trade in the next few months.

IFA national livestock chair Angus Woods presented some IFA initiatives to support the drystock sector and also outlined the IFA’s recently launched proposal looking for a €200/suckler cow payment.

Calving made easy

Providing essential tips for calving.

On the night there was an interactive session with Doreen Corridan and Donal Lynch (local vets) on the correct procedures around calving, using the jack and taking care of the newborn calf.

This session went down very well with farmers, with lots of questions from the floor for the vets present.

This was followed by a live suckler cow demonstration with Rose Goulding, Munster AI and John Lynch, Dovea Genetics.

Speaking about the event, Justin McCarthy said: “We’ve been delighted with the feedback from the events we have held already with our vet calving session going down particularly well with farmers. Streaming the Ennis event live online will mean we can reach a larger number of farmers with our unique event.”

You can view Darren Carty's presentation on beef and sheep markets from the event here: