The Dairy Council for NI, in partnership with CAFRE, AgriSearch and the Ulster Farmers’ Union, is to hold a conference on opportunities and challenges facing the dairy sector on Tuesday 20 October at CAFRE Greenmount.

The event will open with Dale Farm CEO Nick Whelan, who will outline new developments which aim to tackle the environmental impact of producing liquid milk.

Other speakers include Marco Winters from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), with his presentation looking at how the new Bovine Genetics Project can help farmers improve cattle health and efficiency, as well as reduce emissions. He will be joined by Coleraine dairy farmer Andrew McCollum, who will share how genotyping helped his herd achieve the highest ranking for AHDB’s Profitable Lifetime Index (£PLI).

An afternoon session will focus on nutrition and the role of feeding strategies in supporting more sustainable dairy production, with speakers including Professor Steven Morrison from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and Jim Uprichard from Trouw Nutrition.

There will also be panel discussions, including with the three main dairy processors in NI.

The event starts at 10am, lunch will be provided at 12:45pm and the afternoon session will conclude at 3pm.

The conference is free to attend but booking is essential. Register via the events section of the UFU website (www.ufuni.org).