The last of ABP Food Group’s Advantage Beef Programme calf rearing info events will take place at the Springhill Court Hotel in Co. Kilkenny tomorrow (Tuesday, December 6) at 7:30p.m.
Well-known veterinary consultant Tommy Heffernan, or ‘Tommy the Vet’ as he is better known, will be speaking at the event, offering tips on best practice when rearing calves for beef production.
The vet will be speaking about factors to consider when buying calves, such as the source farm, vaccinations, ventilation, and rumen development.
The ABP events
The information meetings are aimed at farmers buying calves and rearing them to beef, and are open for both Advantage Beef Programme members and non-members to attend.
Both dairy and beef farmers are welcome to attend.
Speaking to Agriland ahead of the events, ABP’s Farm Liaison team leader Amie Coonan said: “The information meetings will focus on best practice when it comes to calf health and calf nutrition and will also examine the importance of looking further into the genetic composition of dairy calf to beef animals.”
“We aim to keep these evenings interactive throughout and there will be interesting tutorials as well as informative videos with questions welcome throughout,” she added.
Coonan herself will be speaking on calf nutrition and will be discussing best practice when weaning the calf from milk and onto concentrates.
ABP agri-sustainability manager Stephen Connolly will deliver presentations on the performance of calves on the ABP Demo Farm and the kill-out data to date this year.
He will also outline the importance of genetics and will be showing how different cattle killed out from different artificial insemination (AI) bulls and what the better genetics is worth to the farmer in carcass weight.
An explainer will be offered to farmers on how to find the Commercial Beef Value (CBV) of an animal and the beef sub-index value of a bull.
Farmers who want to know the values of a stockbull or AI bull can bring along the bull’s tag number on the night and a member of the Advantage Beef Programme will check the bull’s figures and show farmers what to look out for.
AI companies will be in attendance on the night and refreshments will be served.