The Dealer nearly spat out the cornflakes when booking into this week’s Teagasc dairy beef conference in Wexford.

The two-day international event, which is being organised in association with the British Society of Animal Science and the meat processor ABP, is taking place in Clayton Whites Hotel in Wexford this week.

The Teagasc fee for the conference came in at €250/head with lunch on both days and your dinner on Wednesday evening included in that.

Given the location any conference goers likely stayed in the hotel on Tuesday night and Wednesday night where bed and breakfast for the two nights sets you back €273/head. That includes parking at the hotel.

That’s €523 per person to fork out to hear all that is good on dairy beef.

The conference included a trip out to the ABP demo farm in Carlow on Wednesday where I hear no margins were discussed again.

I hear ABP sent out free tickets to some of its chosen clients. The Wexford event isn’t the only conference charging big bucks.

I see that the Vet24 conference last week was charging member vets up to €475 to attend the event including wet lab sessions. If you weren’t a vet, the fee was as much as €810.