A new trans-European beef network, called BovINE, was launched by Teagasc in conjunction with EU research and farming partners at the Teagasc Food Research Centre Ashtown, Dublin, today, Tuesday, January 21.
The new network aims to address the beef sector’s sustainability challenges.
According to a statement from Teagasc, BovINE will link researchers, advisors, farmers and other relevant stakeholders across nine EU member states to stimulate the exchange of knowledge and ideas at an international level.
- Socio-economic resilience;
- Animal health and welfare;
- Production efficiency;
- Meat quality;
- Environmental sustainability.
Teagasc outlined that it successfully tendered and was awarded funding of €2 million by the EU to develop this project, which will be shared with 17 other EU partners.
The BovINE project will engage with beef farmers from nine member states, covering 75% of the suckler cow population in Europe and 70% of beef output.
Focused on responding to farmer-identified needs, the BovINE network will provide beef farmers with access to information about innovations that could improve sustainability of their farms and the wider industry.
Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Áine Macken-Walsh, senior researcher in Teagasc, said: “At the heart of this project is the belief that there are different sources of knowledge that can be used by farmers to solve their problems.
There is the traditional ‘expert knowledge’ from scientists and researchers, but there is also the very valuable ‘practitioner knowledge’ that other farmers have developed as a result of grappling with similar problems.
Prof. Maeve Henchion, head of Teagasc’s Department of Agri-food Business and Spatial Analysis, and BovINE coordinator explains: “BovINE takes a bottom up approach to identifying farmers’ needs.
“Each year we will ask farmers to identify their most urgent needs and we will respond to these needs in two ways.”
Firstly, drawing on the “international network” of the initiative’s 17 partners.
- Farmer associations;
- Breeder associations;
- Agricultural advisory organisations;
- Applied research institutions.
She explained: “We will look to identify and share examples of solutions used by other farmers across the EU-wide network.
“Secondly, drawing on the same network, we will identify solutions from research results that have not yet been put into widespread practice.”
At the core of the project are comprehensive communication activities targeted at beef farmers across Europe. Join the mailing list for project news at: [email protected].