BEEF 2018 Farmer Forum

At 3.30pm there will be a farm forum facilitated by Richard Curran from Dragons Den and RTE Radio 1’s The Business.

The theme of the forum is Sustainable Family Beef Farming Business. The panel will include three very successful beef farmers – Mike Dillane, Joe Farrell and John Phelan – as well as Phelim O’Neill from the Irish Farmers Journal.

Mike Dillane runs a 100-cow suckler herd on 59ha of predominately heavy land near Lixnaw in north Kerry. Mike was previously a weanling producer but has changed to finishing bulls at under 16 months and heifers at 16-20 months. Mike is a former participant in the Teagasc-Irish Farmers Journal BETTER Farm Beef Programme.

Joe Farrell runs a dairy calf to beef system as well as a tillage operation in Castledermot, Co Kildare. Joe rears 140 calves each year, mostly comprising Angus heifers and Friesian bull calves. The bull calves are finished as steers at two years of age.

Joe is a strong believer in grass budgeting and measures his pasture weekly using PastureBase Ireland.

John Phelan runs a store to finishing system as well as a tillage enterprise in Dunbell, Co Kilkenny. John buys in about 300 one- to two-year-old heifers each year. Approximately half are finished off grass, with the remainder finished indoors off grass silage and concentrates. John has invested in new sheds and has a very good paddock system in place.

Phelim O’Neill is global market intelligence specialist with the Irish Farmers Journal. Phelim’s entire career has been spent in the beef industry.

The panel will discuss some of the key issues facing the beef industry – the challenges of achieving a satisfactory income from beef farming; the steps farmers can take to make beef farming a more attractive career for young people; and challenges facing the industry including Brexit, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and climate change.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine Michael Creed will also contribute to this discussion.

Agri-Tech Innovation Arena

This year Teagasc will host an Agri-Tech Innovation Arena where Irish Agri-Tech companies will showcase their products and services. Ag-tech is playing an increasingly important role in farm businesses and BEEF 2018 aims to profile what companies have on offer for beef farmers in terms of technology and how this can help increase profitability at farm level. All companies will have products and demos available on the day for farmers to test and see how they work and how they can be applied to their farm. This arena is mainly confined to information and communication technologies used in agriculture. True North, Herd Watch, Cormac Tagging, Irish Farm Computers, Moo Call, Grasstec, Dairygeyser, Mullinahone Co-Op and Aerial Agri Tech are just some of the companies who will be there for you to meet with on the day.