A Department of Agriculture pilot project to rear dairy-bred calves got general approval from milk processors at an industry meeting on Tuesday.

It is understood that the plan is to purchase 100 calves for 15 different “rearing” farms with a view to bringing them to through to slaughter at 20 months of age.

The plan is to build an infrastructure that can be scaled up in the coming years using genotyping, rearing protocols and maybe sexed semen technology.

Discussion

The Department-led group must meet with Meat Industry Ireland representatives soon for further discussion.