Continued high attrition rates in the number of farmers rearing calves was highlighted as a "significant challenge" in the Irish dairy-calf-to-beef industry at a recent Teagasc farm walk.

Speaking at the Teagasc DairyBeef500 farm walk on the farm of Keith and Olivia Lowry in Tuam, Co. Galway, last Thursday (July 9), Teagasc adviser John Kilboyle highlighted that 60% of the prime cattle kill in Ireland was from dairy-beef origin last year.

He said that there are "huge opportunities" at the moment for dairy-beef operations, be it dairy-beef farmers, suckler farmers taking on some dairy-beef as part of their system or new entrants to dairy beef, but warned the system "doesn't come without its challenges".

Commenting on the statistic, he said: "There is a significant challenge there at farm level on how to take on a sustainable system that will last on farm and deliver for yourselves, as farmers."

Latest Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) figures on attrition rates in dairy beef systems can be found here.

The Teagasc adviser said that sustainability has three parts and said: "In terms of sustainability; for a system to be viable for yourselves and last on farms, it has to be profitable.

"It doesn't really matter after that. If it's not profitable, it's not going to be sustainable."

He also said that the host farmers for the event were both working off-farm, adding that this is also the case for many farmers in the business of rearing calves.

With this in mind, Kilboyle stressed that dairy-beef systems must also be efficient to be sustainable, saying: "If it's not simple to implement on farms, it's not going to happen either".

He emphasised the importance of a sustainable farming system being as simple as possible and allowing for a good work-life balance.

He also said that environmental challenges facing agriculture in Ireland "are there and they are real".

Farm walk

The farm walk looked at how all these challenges to sustainability can be addressed.

Kilboyle said that the aim of the farm walk was to highlight "how we can drive a profitable and simple system that also has a positive impact on the environment in terms of water quality and emissions challenges that are there, and it can be done".

Huge crowds attended the farm walk with a high level of interest in the system being run by the Lowrys.

The farm walk also examined profitability of the DairyBeef500 farmers. Other areas discussed included calf health and nutrition as well as keeping calves thriving at grass.

The important role of grazing infrastructure and trying to make more out of the grass grown on the farm and how to get as much liveweight gain from animals on grass was also discussed at the event.

There was also a discussion on reseed management and best practice for farmers when managing a newly established reseed.