Beef farmers are being sought to take part in a new Teagasc research project focused on reducing the finishing age of cattle.
One of the main greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategies for the Irish beef sector is reducing the average finishing age of the ‘prime’ beef cattle population to 22-23 months of age by 2030.
Teagasc said that its Beef-Quest project will work on identifying the barriers to achieving an earlier age of finish for beef cattle nationally, while participating farmers can avail of a range of benefits.
Farmers on the project will be provided with free live weight recording of growing cattle, which will be conducted at key stages over the animal’s lifetime.
Participants will also benefit from forage analysis, as well bench mark reporting of their farm’s performance with that of other farms within the programme.
Beef farmers
Dr Paul Smith, project lead on Beef-Quest and Research Officer in the Teagasc Climate Centre, said that regular live weight recording is the only way to accurately monitor the live weight gain performance of growing cattle.
“Through the capture of on-farm data, we hope to identify the pitfalls and develop strategies to achieve a younger age of finish for beef cattle nationally,” he said.
Dr. Smith explained that earlier finishing of beef cattle not only has the potential to decrease the quantity of GHG emissions an animal emits over their lifetime, but can be economically advantageous, by lowering total costs associated with rearing an animal.
Although Irish beef farmers have made some progress in reducing the age of finish over the past 15 years, Dr. Smith explained there is still a considerable journey to go to achieve the abovementioned target.
“Currently, the national mean age at finishing is some three-six months older than achieved on high-performing, grass-based, commercial and beef research farms.
“To achieve a reduction in finishing age, there is an urgent need to identify and quantify the key factors currently impeding Irish beef farms from achieving potential live weight targets,” he said.
The project, which is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), will run in collaboration with University College Dublin (UCD) and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
“This project will use data currently available within the industry to map the lifetime live weight gain performance of the national beef herd,” Dr. Smith said.
There are currently places available on the project, which is due to begin this October, for drystock farmers carrying beef animals to finish.
There are also a small number of places for dairy farmers who are operating integrated systems or are carrying their calves from birth through to finish.