Projects
Northern Ireland SUCKLER BEEF programme
This is a joint venture between ABP Beef UK, CAFRE and the Irish Farmers Journal, delivered through the AgriProfit Programme.
This 3 year project aims to develop a road map for profitable beef production from the Suckler herd by achieving improvements in technical efficiencies within the farm gate. Assessment of profitability is on the gross margin per hectare firstly and secondly on the physical performance.
There are 8 farmers taking part from all areas of Northern Ireland and representing a range of production systems. Key areas that will be looked at within the programme:
- Benchmarking
- Grassland management
- Use of slurries and farm yard manure
- Animal health (Herd Health plans)
- Breeding
- Liveweight gain
Look out for updates in the Irish Farmers Journal
Identifying and Improving Carcase Traits in Beef Cattle
The British Limousin Cattle Society (BLCS) have teamed up with ABP Beef and the Scottish Agricultural College to carry out an exciting 3 year project exploring the latest genetic and grading technologies (VIA) to improve carcase traits in cattle.
Once the whole process is up and running, individual beef farmers will be able to get a genomic breeding value on their young animals. By submitting a DNA sample to BLCS, who will determine the genotype and send on to EGENES (Edinburgh Genetic Evaluation Services) at SAC, the Genomic Estimated Breeding Values can be calculated.
It is an exciting time for the beef industry with the ability to utilise current new technology and genomic evaluations. It enables the UK to keep up with international efforts being applied in this area of development, especially in the USA and Australia. It provides the opportunity to encourage greater stakeholder involvement in breeding goals by including commercial beef producers in the information flow. There will be increased output for Limousin sired beef especially in traits of greater economic value such as loin length and carcase value. Payment structures for beef animals could change giving a greater reward for carcases of higher value cuts at the same carcase weights.
