A blend of indoor and outdoor sessions is in store for sheep farmers attending this year's Teagasc’s National Sheep Conference.

The event will take place on Thursday 18 June in Ballinasloe, County Galway.

Running from 3pm to 9pm with refreshments provided, the conference will be divided into two sessions, blending indoor presentations with outdoor practical workshops.

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The first session will take place in the Shearwater Hotel Ballinasloe, Co Galway from 3pm to 5pm with four papers on topics of interest to the sheep sector presently.

Conference presentations

Talk sessions include bluetongue and exotic diseases, delivered by Avril Hobson, senior superintending veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture. Teagasc Walsh scholar Jake Delaney will discuss flock health and lameness and Damian Costello, Teagasc sheep specialist, will cover labour on sheep farms. The session will conclude with Darren Carty from the Irish Farmers Journal discussing the outlook for markets, Department of Agriculture schemes and the new CAP.

Practical session

The conference will then move to the farm of John Galvin, Coolfree, Taughmaconnell, Co Roscommon.

From 5.30pm there will be food and refreshments provided to attendees, with a poster session from 5.30pm to 6.30pm, highlighting current Teagasc sheep research and attendees will have a chance to interact with the staff working on the various projects.

From 7pm, there will be an interactive workshop session which will cover grassland management, lameness control, internal parasite control, and flock breeding.

Attendees will have the opportunity to attend all four workshops in the session over the course of the evening, and it is hoped there will be plenty of discussion among attendees and presenters at each of the workshops.

The event will conclude at 9pm.

Michael Gottstein, head of Teagasc'S sheep knowledge programme, said: “We are encouraging all people who are involved or have an interest in the sheep industry to attend what promises to be an informative and highly practical event. This is a new format for us in Teagasc, and we hope that attendees will find the new format informative and interesting.”

The event is free and there is no prior booking is required.