The CEO of Tirlán has said that calves are a “central part” of the dairy sector and the production cycle, and have to be taken care of.
Jim Bergin was speaking to Agriland yesterday (Thursday, April 6) at the opening of Tirlán’s new headquarters and collaboration hub in Kilkenny when he touched on the issue of dairy bull calf welfare.
“This is an issue, and what’s in my own view at the moment is that many good things have been done, but not a composite solution to calf welfare,” he said.
“Internally, we are looking at that to see if we can craft a composite solution. Personally, I think we can.”
Bergin remarked that Ireland “doesn’t necessarily have a community of recognised calf rearers”.
“So we have dairy farmers, we have beef farmers, we have sheep farmers, but there’s not actually a community of farmers with a self-image of being excellent calf rearers, and there’s many of them in the country,” he commented.
“Even that self-recognition, and the creation of that, is very, very important,” Bergin added.
“Ultimately here, the calf is a central part of the dairy industry, and of the production cycle. It has to be taken care of, and can be taken care of, and can be optimised as part of a joined-up bovine strategy for the country in collaboration with the meat industry.”
The Tirlán CEO drew attention to the Twenty20 Beef Club, a collaboration between Tirlán and Kepak, saying that the partnership has produced “excellent results” in terms of date to slaughter and weight gain.
This type of partnership, Bergin said, would be the template for Tirlán in the future.
“I’m positive about what we can do on the calf development side. We need to put all the pieces together, and show farmers a roadmap that if they do X,Y, and Z, that there is actually a solution,” he commented.
The Tirlán boss added: “I think there is a solution here, one that we can control ourselves within the country, and I think that we will get there.”