The Irish Farmers Journal's new dairy calf to beef programme, Thrive, is aimed at increasing profit and technical efficiency.

The programme is being undertaken with the support of Bord Bia, ICBF, Kerry Agri, Aurivo, Dovea Genetics, Progressive Genetics and Munster AI.

Livestock specialist William Conlon will work with eight to 10 dairy calf to beef farmers over the next four years.

At the moment suitable calves are being identified and moved to demonstration farms.

Twelve bulls have been chosen. All have easy-calving characteristics coupled with short gestation along with good carcase weight and conformation traits. Calves will be brought through to slaughter on the demo farms and there will be regular updates on animal performance in the Irish Farmers Journal and at farmersjournal.ie.

A pilot phase of the project was initiated by the Irish Farmers Journal in 2018 with the purchase of 102 calves which were contract-reared on the farm of John Hally just outside Cashel in Co Tipperary.

These calves were male and female, Hereford, Aberdeen Angus, Limousin and Belgian Blue. They were sired by seven different sires. All physical and financial data on these calves has been collected and will be featured in the Irish Farmers Journal in the coming weeks.

Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy said: “We are delighted to launch the Thrive programme. We see it as a very important initiative for farmers in dairy calf to beef production systems and dairy farmers looking to use better beef genetics in their herds.

“I would like to acknowledge and thank our partners and look forward to working with them over the next four years. Thrive will dovetail with our other technical programmes as part of an expanding delivery of unique content for both our paper readers and digital subscribers.”

The programme will demonstrate best practice in a number of key areas:

  • Improved sire selection (focus on beef).
  • Management of calves prior to sale.
  • Calf-rearing principles, with an emphasis on animal welfare.
  • Financial budgets (cashflow is challenging in dairy calf to beef systems).
  • Feed management – grassland and supplements.
  • Meet the market needs (how to meet spec).

    • At the moment, programme participants are being finalised and calves are being sourced to move on to the demo farms. Programme coverage will begin in next week's Irish Farmers Journal.