Northern Ireland’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) is set to host two ‘Planning for Performance’ events looking at parasite and winter-feeding strategies for beef and sheep farmers next week.
They will be held in partnership with Agrisearch, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and the NI Sheep SOS (Stamp Out Scab) initiative.
The first event will take place at CAFRE’s Greenmount Campus in Co. Antrim on Tuesday, October 4, at 7:30p.m; the second event will take place at its Enniskillen Campus on Thursday, October 6, at 7:30p.m.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) said the events are needed, as amid rising costs it is essential that animal health and nutrition are not compromised.
The events
The events will be introduced and chaired by CAFRE’s head of beef and sheep, Mark Scott, who has been part of the rising costs industry taskforce since its establishment in spring.
Prof. Eric Morgan of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) will present an introduction to targeted anthelmintic treatment alongside farmers involved in the Anthelmintic Targeted Selective Treatment (TST) project.
The results of this work, in conjunction with innovations around dosing strategies, have the potential to save money and reduce resistance with no impact on animal performance.
Morgan has an interest in building and testing predictive models of parasite infection patterns in grazing animals and selective intervention against parasites in livestock to support production and livelihoods.
Gareth Beacom and Dominic Mason, both CAFRE beef and sheep advisors, will look at the implications of various winter-feeding strategies in beef and sheep systems.
Feeding options for storing and finishing beef cattle will be analysed and discussed as well as the options for finishing lambs.
