On Tuesday 23 July, the Irish Farmers Journal beef and sheep demonstration farm in Tullamore will open its gates to the public for its biennial national open day.

We are delighted to partner with Zurich Farm Insurance to bring you to Tullamore Farm for this year’s open day.

The suckler and sheep production system that is currently in operation on the farm will be profiled on the day, including a full breakdown of the finances for each enterprise on the farm.

The farm is home to an 85 cow suckler herd, predominantly Limousin and Simmental cows, and the full herd along with the 2023-born heifers will be on display on the day.

This year saw the farm move to a cow monitoring system using collars to aid in heat detection and health monitoring of the herd.This has also allowed the use of sexed semen, and we will have the results from the 2024 breeding season on the day.

Darren Carty will outline the sheep system and why the farm has introduced EasyCare sheep to the breeding programme.

Siobhán Walsh and Kelsey Daly will go through some of the actions being undertaken on the farm to help reduce our GHG emissions.

The discussion forum will kick off at 2pm, where the results of the Irish Farmers Journal/KPMG study on the “Economic impact of the latest decarbonisation proposals on the agriculture sector” will be presented.

There will also be a discussion on the future of the suckler cow and what challenges and opportunities exist in the suckler sector.

A vast array of industry exhibitors will be there on the day and a number of workshops will take place on tractor safety, quad safety, ICBF indexes, solar energy, sheep shearing, sheepdog training and farmer health and wellbeing.

It promises to be a great day out for all the family. All of us at the Irish Farmers Journal look forward to meeting you there.