The Twenty20 Beef Club, a dairy calf-to-beef production system that improves economic, social and environmental sustainability has been successful in the European Awards for Cooperative Innovation.
The Twenty20 Beef Club is a partnership between Glanbia Ireland and Kepak Group. It won the award in the international competition organised by Cogeca (European Association of Agri-Cooperatives). It was shortlisted under the ’Economic Value Creation’ category.
The international judging panel assessed over 100 entries from across Europe. It singled out the Twenty20 Beef Club’s proven credentials and said it represents “an outstanding innovation that creates valuable impact in the value chain”.
It continued:
“Innovation is about value creation and the way your organisation does it, clearly underlines how the cooperative model is a key tool to respond to the emerging challenges, to shift to more sustainable food systems and to bring further environmental, economic and social benefits.”
Glanbia Ireland head of beef, Martin Ryan, said: “While the award recognises the immense capacity of the Twenty20 Beef Club to generate monetary value for our farmer members, the jury also called out the environmental, economic and social sustainability credentials of the club.
“It is both comforting and reassuring to all involved in our value chain to see an EU-based independent adjudication panel recognise the Twenty20 Beef Club with this award”.
Mick O’Dowd, agri-business manager, Kepak, said:
“This award recognises that collaboration across the beef and dairy industry is not only beneficial to the farmer, but to the environment too. As the club continues to grow, Cogeca’s endorsement gives us further confidence that we are on the right track.”
It’s a second win in the international competition for Glanbia Co-op. MilkFlex is a previous winner, taking the Cooperative Innovation award in the same Europe-wide competition in 2017.
The Twenty20 Beef Club has been created to sustainably produce and market Irish heifer and steer beef. A fully traceable input supply chain underpins the programme and supports the establishment of industry-leading marketing claims.
The overriding objective of the programme is to improve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of calf-to-beef production in the Republic of Ireland for dairy and beef farmers. Additional value is created by sustainably producing beef, with complete traceability and transparency through:
- Genetics and agri-technologies;
- Leading animal health and welfare;
- Best practice in animal nutrition and grassland management;
- Premium pricing.
The benefits for farmers are numerous and include a substantial price premium for the cattle, predictability of pricing and certainty around their market.
Members are offered technical support to enable them produce or procure animals with higher genetic merit and achieve optimum daily liveweight gain during the animal’s life.
To date, the animals processed by the club are four and a half months younger than the national average for similar livestock, thus reducing their carbon foot print significantly.