A new €1 million state-of-the-art dairy calf rearing centre will have its official opening at 11a.m today (Tuesday, February 25) at UCD Lyons Farm.

The centre aims to apply cutting-edge research to benefit and improve the health and rearing of dairy calves.

UCD Lyons Farm is one of the main hubs for UCD agricultural and veterinary research and teaching and is a fully functioning farm comprising 250ha of land in Co. Kildare.

The farm consists of dairy, beef, sheep, equine, crop, and environmental research, teaching, and commercial facilities.

The new dairy calf education and research facility will provide agriculture and veterinary students with hands-on experience in the best practices of calf rearing, while also greatly expanding the national research capacity for dairy heifer research.

The facility will allow for a focus on early life nutrition, better integration of dairy and beef, and the environmental impact of dairy heifer farming.

Designed to fulfil both research and commercial farming requirements, and demonstrate best practices in dairy calf rearing, the new facility has the capacity to rear 180 dairy calves from birth up to five months of age.

Utilising both nationally and internationally knowledge in calf housing, the facility will allow researchers to continuously monitor and assess key factors in calf rearing, such as growth, feed intake and efficiency, health, welfare, and behaviour indicators.

“University College Dublin is the only university in Ireland to have its own dedicated research and teaching farm,” said UCD president, professor Orla Feely.

The president added that “this remarkable 250ha working farm, Lyons Farm, provides our faculty, researchers, and students with an unparalleled agricultural environment in which to teach, research, and learn.”

Feely added that the partners "will ensure University College Dublin remains at the vanguard of agricultural and veterinary research, and plays a critical role in the future success of Irish dairy and beef production”.

UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science professor and chair of Lyons Farm Management Committee, Alex Evans, said "we are very grateful for the support of our industry partners in making this development a reality.

“By enhancing our understanding of the impact of early life nutrition on dairy calf health and productivity, we are paving the way for the next generation of agricultural leaders and ensuring a stronger, more resilient future for dairy and beef farming across the country.”

Following the abolition of European milk quotas in 2015, there has been a substantial expansion in the Irish dairy industry, with the national dairy herd increasing by 45% in the past decade.

The consequence of such an increase is that the calf rearing stage has now become a critical phase of the production cycle in both dairy and calf-to-beef systems, with rearing practices and livestock health coming under increased scrutiny.

Unique to the new facility is that its dairy calf rearing/research programme is integrated into pre-existing whole farm research systems in operation at Lyons Farm, allowing for the examination of the long term benefits that early intervention can have on the lifetime productivity of dairy calves, farm profitability, and environmental footprint.