As January approaches, the conference season is about to begin. For dairy farmers, the two big ones are the Irish Grassland Association and the Positive Farmers Conference.

Both attract hundreds of farmers each year to their annual conferences in January. These conferences are usually a week apart, but, unfortunately, there is a clash this time around, with both on 10 January.

The Positive Farmers Conference is on over two days, so is also on 11 January, while there will be a social night for the grassland event on 9 January, the day before the conference.

However, farmers wishing to attend both conferences cannot do so on 10 January. A mix-up with dates has meant that both are now on the one day.

The keynote speakers at the Positive Farmers Conference include Paul Bird, a dairy farm business consultant with Dairy NZ, who will be speaking about the fundamentals of running a profitable farm business.

Other speakers

Also speaking is Waterford dairy farmer Jim Curran on how he manages to breed higher value dairy calves, while multiple All-Ireland winner Briege Corkery and her husband Diarmaid Scannell outline their careers in dairy.

In total over the two days, there are eight sessions covering topics such as milk price, farm systems, progression, breeding, succession, managing risk and mental health. Two-day tickets cost €230 per person.

At the grassland event, there will be sessions on managing milk price, animal health and managing farm systems with farmers Owen Ashton, Mark Collins and David Dolan.

One-day conference tickets costs €115 for non-members.