Research and better breeding factors in Irish beef success
UK - Obtaining cutting edge research is not easy when you are in the middle of autumn calving and it involves trawling through endless scientific papers in an attempt to make results relevant to your system. So how do farmers make sense of research?
11 October 2006
1 minute read
Targeted at progressive Irish beef farmers keen to develop systems to maintain efficiency, a recent beef open day at the Teagasc Beef Research Centre at Grange, Co Meath attracted over 2000 producers.
Exports
Exporting more than 90% of their beef to the European market, Irish beef farmers were advised to take notice of market requirements and the demand for lean animals with good conformation.
Payments were based on yield and percentage of high value cuts, said Michael Drennan, Grange Research Centre. "There is no value for bone or fat, carcasses must be lean and have good conformation."
To illustrate this, research to establish the differences in profitability from conformation has been carried out by Grange Research Centre, with results presented at the open day.
"Animals with the same carcass weight, classified as U3 and O3, showed definite differences in terms of value. The U3 carcass produced 270kg meat, 30kg fat and 60kg bone; whereas the O3 carcass produced 240kg meat, 43kg fat and 77kg bone, resulting in a difference in value of the U3 carcass of +37c/kg (25p/kg)," said Dr Drennan.
Source: fwi.co.uk
