ABP Food Group has announced the winners of its Beef Benchmark sustainability awards at the ABP Demo Farm open day in Carlow today (Tuesday, July 25).
The event got underway shortly after 11:00.am with presentations and demonstrations on best practice in management of a calf-to-beef farm.
Farmers in attendance were also offered advice on multi-species reseeding, feeding cattle over the winter and vaccination plans for cattle.
At the end of the open day, the winners of the beef processors’ farm supplier sustainability awards were announced.
The ABP Beef Benchmark Report was launched in 2022 in collaboration with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) and ICBF’s Conor Brown was in attendance at the awards presentation.
It was the first of its kind globally, providing carcass and greenhouse gas (GHG) data on an individual animal basis.
According to ABP Food Group, the Beef Benchmark is “a valuable tool that measures the performance of the animals slaughtered in your herd against a number of key performance indicators (KPIs)”.
The six awards up for grabs were as follows:
- Suckler-beef steer category;
- Suckler-beef heifer category;
- Suckler young bull category;
- Dairy-beef steer category;
- Dairy steer category;
- Dairy-beef heifer category.
The beef processor has said the ABP Beef Benchmark Report “allows famers to benchmark their herd performance against the ABP national average and top 10% of all animals slaughtered at ABP sites”.
The suckler-beef steer category was won by Patrick Flanagan from Ennis, Co. Clare.
Taking home the award for the suckler-beef heifer category was Michael Clifford from Kilbrin, Co. Cork.
Taking home the award in the suckler young bull category was Michael Cassin from Inistiogue, Co. Kilkenny.
Next up was the dairy-beef steer category and it was the Ryan family from Co. Tipperary who won the award.
Edward Ryan is a calf-to-beef farmer and a member of ABP’s Advantage Beef Programme.
The dairy-steer category award was won by Declan Hickey from Co. Kilkenny who is a suckler and calf-to-beef farmer. Declan is also an Advantage Beef Programme member.
The final award on the day was the dairy-beef heifer category and it was Vincent Lynch from Ballinspittle, Co. Cork who took the award in this category.
Vincent is also a calf-to-beef farmer and an Advantage Beef Programme member.
Speaking ahead of the announcement of the winners, ABP Food Group’s agri-sustainability manager Stephen Connolly said: “It is important to acknowledge suppliers who are performing at a high level of efficiency with a reduced carbon footprint.
“ABP is striving to provide family farms with data that allows them to benchmark their herd performance and use to report as an assistance tool in making management decisions that improve the economic and environmental sustainability of their production system.
“This report is aligned with ABP’s focus on genetic improvement, comparing beef animals within a herd using the new Commercial Beef Index.”
“It highlights the importance of breeding and buying high-index animals to increase carcass quality and reduce age at slaughter, therefore, increasing revenue for your farm and reducing the carbon footprint within your farm gate.”
To date, over 10,000 reports have been sent to ABP beef suppliers since the launch of the Beef Benchmark report.