Teagasc is to recruit a new head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer following the appointment of Dr. Tom O’Dwyer to the position of as head of the Signpost Programme.
Dr. O’Dwyer is the current head of the Teagasc Dairy Knowledge Transfer Department.
According to Teagasc, the Signpost Programme “will encourage and demonstrate to farmers how to achieve early progress in reducing gaseous emissions from Irish agriculture, while also improving water quality, maintaining and improving biodiversity and creating more profitable and sustainable farming enterprises”.
Confirming the news of a recruitment process to replace Dr. O’Dwyer, a spokesperson for the agricultural authority said:
A process to replace Tom as head of the Dairy KT [Knowledge Transfer] department in Teagasc has just commenced and is still in the early stages.
The semi-state authority could move to promote one of its current senior dairy specialists to the role, as was the case with the recent appointment of Alan Phelan to the position of as chief operations officer in Teagasc.
Having been head of Human Resources (HR) in Teagasc for the last 14 years, Phelan will take over from Tom Doherty who retires later this year after serving as chief operations officer since 2010.
Alternatively, Teagasc could look beyond its current staff members, as was the case with the appointment of Dr. Stan Lalor to the post of Head of Knowledge Transfer.
Dr. Lalor, who has been vice president of the Irish Grassland Association (IGA), was brought in from Grassland Agro, which he joined in 2014 as head of speciality business.