September 3, 2010

Northern Irish beef and dairy producers wanted for research

Farmers in Northern Ireland are being given the opportunity to work alongside leading agricultural scientists with a global reputation for research excellence.

AgriSearch, in partnership with Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, is seeking beef and milk producers keen to become part of future research programmes.

The company wants to hear from progressive beef farmers who either have suckler cows or rear and finish dairy-origin cattle and have an interest in monitoring the performance of new rearing and finishing systems.

Beef research is likely to focus on developing new ways of improving production efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint of beef production systems.

Projected research programmes will aim to develop new tools to improve management of both suckler replacements and dairy-origin beef finishing systems.

Dairy research could involve investigating transition cow management, with the objective of evaluating a number of transition cow feeding strategies to improve herd health, production and fertility.