Teagasc has confirmed that it has signed a 15-year lease for lands in Co. Tipperary to develop a new dairy calf-to-beef demonstration farm.

The farm located at Ballyvadin in Fethard is a joint venture between Teagasc, Dawn Meats and Shinagh Estates Ltd.

“The Ballyvadin farm will demonstrate the deployment of best technologies in sustainable beef production,” a spokesperson for Teagasc explained.

It will employ “excellent dairy-beef genetics and grassland management” to develop profitable dairy calf-to-beef systems, they added.

Teagasc farm

The development forms part of the state agency’s new Dairy Beef 500 campaign which aims to achieve a net margin of €500/ha (excluding premia).

The 112ha farm will initially be stocked with 300 calves that will be reared through to beef as steers and heifers.

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“The target will be to maximise production from grazed grass and high-quality silage with animals being finished from 20 to 26 months, depending on gender and beef genetics,” the Teagasc spokesperson said.

The Co. Tipperary farm will procure around 300 spring-born calves annually from a small of farms when they are aged between two and four-weeks of age.

The calves will all be ranked at a minimum of four stars on the commercial beef value (CBV) index.

The farm is set to be leased from the landowner by Tegasc for a 15-year period. However, the cost of the lease was not disclosed.

In terms of the operation of the holding, the state agency will enter into a share-farming agreement with Dawn Meats and Shinagh Estates.

“This agreement will define the supply of land, stock, labour and all other inputs required for the successful operation of Ballyvadin dairy calf-to-beef farm.

“Separately, there will be service management agreement between Ballyvadin Farm Ltd. and Teagasc regarding the operations of the Ballyvadin demo dairy calf-to-beef farm,” the Teagasc spokesperson concluded.