A draft 'action plan' on the dairy beef calf sector will look to "formalise" relationships between dairy and beef farmers, through a potential "match-making service".

The aim is for this service to develop networks of dairy and beef farmers suitable for partnership.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced the launch of a consultation on the action plan, which he hopes will highlight the potential of dairy calf to beef systems as an option for farmers.

His announcement came at a seminar event today (Thursday, January 18), and forms part of the implementation of the actions agreed by stakeholders in the Food Vision 2030 strategy to develop and support dairy calf to beef systems.

The consultation will run until February 9.

The 10-point plan propose the following measures:

Action 1 - Making these systems profitable and environmentally sustainable (this may include Teagasc reporting those systems as a separate sector in the National Farm Survey);
Action 2 -Increasing and optimising use of sexed semen (using targeted communication with dairy farmers on the benefits);
Action 3 - Improving breeding strategies (through the new Dairy Beef Welfare Scheme, to be opened in March, and ensuring the commercial beef value of calves is clearly communicated by marts, among other steps);
Action 4 - Improving farmer awareness of grants available under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) that are relevant to calf rearing;
Action 5 - Rolling out further knowledge transfer measures via Teagasc, private advisors, and meat and dairy processors;
Action 6 - Establishing a nationwide network of demonstration farms, with open days, and targeting all livestock farmers with direct messages to inform them of events on those farms;
Action 7 - Formalising the relationship between dairy and beef farmers, with the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS), marts, and the Macra Land Mobility Service facilitating this, and examining the possibility of grant aid for establishing partnerships;
Action 8 - Bord Bia marketing dairy beef by communicating the developments in the sector to consumers to underpin confidence in the product;
Action 9 - Teagasc developing a range of "vertically integrated" models with beef processors to reward dairy and beef farmers, and examining formal tie-ups between processors and farmers, such as the ABP Advantage Beef Programme and the Kepak Twenty20 beef club;
Action 10 - Ensuring calf health and welfare by promoting more applications under TAMS for calf housing and rearing equipment and facilitating an increase in capacity to keep calves on dairy farms for longer.

Commenting on this action plan, Minister McConalogue said: "Making dairy calf to beef systems a profitable and sustainable option for farmers requires a huge national effort... It is important that the potential of these systems is fully understood in advance of the upcoming breeding season.

"This initiative is designed to sit alongside the existing supports to ensure that livestock farmers have as many options as possible and continue to develop in a sustainable manner," he added.

Frank O'Mara, the director of Teagasc, was also at today's meeting, and said: "The building blocks are in place now to improve the beef merit of the calf crop from the dairy herd, given the progress that has been made in the use of sexed semen, and the advances in genetic tools...coupled with the new genotyping programme.

"This presents an opportunity for beef farmers which can be maximised by greater integration between dairy and beef farms," O'Mara added.