This year's dates for the Irish Farmers Journal mart livestock demos have been announced and the livestock team will be hitting the road in February and March, visiting marts all across the country with this year's marts roadshow.

Vet advice on young calves

While Brexit has dominated the headlines over the past few weeks, there is a massive job of work to be completed on Irish farms over the next two months and that is calving 2019.

Over one million calves will be born on Irish farmers in the next few months. Keeping these calves alive and healthy is an absolute must to make sure as much money is made as possible, especially on beef farms.

The theme of our events is " Achieving targets with healthy animals this spring."

New recruit to the Irish Farmers Journal livestock team, Journal vet Tommy Heffernan, will be attending all the events and will outline some simple practical tips that farmers can employ this spring to make sure calving goes well.

He will also outline strategies of treatment for scour and pneumonia and more importantly, how to avoid these issues occurring on farms this spring.

Brexit facts

While there is little farmers can do while we watch on with fear and apprehension at the unfolding Brexit fiasco across the water, what we can do is inform ourselves with the facts when making decisions.

Our EU and markets specialist Phelim O Neill is in Brussels on a weekly basis and will attend the mart events to outline to farmers what his views are on the current situation and the likely outcomes.

Phelim will also have a look at the current beef market and what the next few months hold in store for both weanling and beef producers.

AXA Smart Farm Insurance

We are delighted to be running these events in association with AXA Smart Farm Insurance and both Myles Reilly and Christy Doherty will attend all events to talk to farmers on the farm insurance products they are offering to farmers and also some health and safety tips on keeping safe around the farmyard ahead of the very busy spring period.

Livestock demo

Progressive Genetics and Dovea Genetics have just released their spring catalogues of beef sires and their breeding advisers will be available for a chat on spring 2019 breeding.

Each mart demo will have a live demonstration of cows and calves at which different points on animal selection will be discussed along with the Irish Farmers Journal livestock specialist team.

€500 of prizes

Over €500 worth of prizes will be up for grabs at each event. Everybody who attends the events will be put into a draw for prizes such as, AXA Insurance vouchers, calving hampers, AI straws and Irish Farmers Journal merchandise.

Knowledge Transfer-approved event

All events are knowledge transfer approved events and will count as a national event attended for the programme.

Farmers should make sure to sign in at each event where Department of Agriculture staff will be available from 6.45pm at each venue.

For further information on the events, see www.farmersjournal.ie or contact ccarey@farmersjournal.ie for details. Regular updates will also be available on Irish Farmers Journal social media channels in the coming days.