The group visited two BETTER farms and found them to be an excellent benchmark for their own farms.

They said: ‘‘Firstly, they were real farmers with real figures who are making a good living from farming. Secondly, showing young beef farmers that we can make a living from beef and that it’s not all about dairy is very important in this climate of milk and dairy being sacrosanct. This programme is now showing its worth as by focusing on facts, figures and profitability, it is giving young beef farmers the knowledge they need to make their own farms better.’’

November gave the opportunity to visit the Newford Herd managed by Dawn Meats, the flagship sustainability farm of Ray Dempsey and a vital lesson on grass measurement and management by Michael O’Leary and John Maher from PastureBase Ireland.

The key takehome message from this was that every tonne of grass eaten per hectare will increase the profit on beef farms by €105/ha.

Michael O’Leary explained the concept of Grass 10. This is to increase the amount of grass eaten to 10t DM/ha and achieve 10 grazings per paddock per year.

Monday 18 December saw the final 2017 date for the programme with an information session and workshop hosted by Bord Bia.

After an introduction to the Thinking House and an insight into consumer trends, meat trends and current meat projects, there was a comprehensive discussion on the Quality Assurance and Origin Green schemes. A knowledge and overview of the beef market put the day-to-day farming carried out by those present into a wider industry picture and was a valuable lesson in producing to consumer demands.