The Irish Farmers Journal stand at the National Ploughing Championships 2018 plays host to two types of interactive demonstrations throughout the three days.

The demos will run on the hour every hour each day at Ploughing 2018, alternating between a livestock demonstration, chaired by beef editor Adam Woods, and a fodder demonstration featuring expert advice from members of the Irish Farmers Journal livestock team.

As gates opened for Ploughing 2018 on Tuesday, large crowds quickly descended upon the Irish Farmers Journal stand for the first livestock demonstration which started at 10am.

Stand

There are three groups of livestock present at the stand, a group of continental suckler cows and their calves, a group of three bullocks and, finally, a group of ewes and rams from Tullamore Farm Ltd.

Breeding

At the livestock demonstration, Adam Woods, Irish Farmers Journal beef editor, chaired a discussion with Chris Daly of ICBF and Joe Burke of Bord Bia.

Daly was first asked about the role of ICBF and how genetic indexes work: “The aim is to create a balanced suckler cow for Irish farmers.”

Action from the livestock demos at the Irish Farmers Journal stand. \ Donal O' Leary

Figures displayed at the stand show that improvements have been made in the calving performance in BDGP herds from 2014 to 2018, with calving interval reducing by 11 days, and calves/cow/year increasing by 0.05, for example. He added: “We aren’t where we want to be yet, but we are moving in the right direction.”

Moving on, Daly was asked about breeding in the suckler herd and the increasing inclusion of dairy genetics. He said: “There is a misconception that suckler are running out of milk.”

He added that “it’s about striking a balance. There doesn’t have to be dairy genetics if continental suckers with good maternal genetics are used.”

Markets

Joe Burke from Bord Bia was quizzed on market insights. He said: “Turkey is the only market, apart from Northern Ireland, where we have seen a decline in live exports.”

There is potential for the market to expand again, particularly for the nice R+, light weanling at around 300kg

The reason for this, he explained, was due to economic difficulties with exchange rates 100% weaker than previous years where trade was strong.

However, he said “there is potential for the market to expand again, particularly for the nice R+, light weanling at around 300kg”.

The livestock demonstration at the Irish Farmers Journal runs each day at 10am, 12pm and 2pm. \ Donal O'Leary

On slaughterings, he pointed out that the kill is higher than last year – cull cows are up 5%, heifers are up more and young bulls are up 10%. However, he said factories can’t use this as an excuse for lower prices because “carcase weights are down 5% to 10% so overall beef intake isn’t much different”.

Sheep

Livestock specialist Darren Carty spoke to Eamonn Wall of Sheep Ireland about the breeding indexes of Irish rams and the ability of the indexes now to identify higher-performing animals for slaughter and for breeding replacements.

The livestock demonstration at the Irish Farmers Journal runs each day at 10am, 12pm and 2pm