STRONG TURNOUT OF FARMERS AT POSITIVE BOVINE EVENT

Up to 150 beef farmers and other stakeholders from the beef sector recently took part in the first Irish BovINE network meeting (virtually). Organised by the IFA in conjunction with Teagasc, who are the BovINE partners in Ireland, the virtual meeting was described as a really interesting and worthwhile event.

STRONG TURNOUT OF FARMERS AT POSITIVE BOVINE EVENT

IFA National Livestock Chairman Brendan Golden said this was a very positive and informative event, especially considering the Covid restrictions and other challenges facing beef farmers. He said “BovINE is a very positive initiative in identifying farmers needs and finding solutions. It’s great to see IFA and Teagasc working together in this way helping to tackle the challenges in the beef sector.”

The BovINE network links farmers, advisors, researchers, and all other relevant stakeholders, across 9 EU member states, to stimulate exchange of knowledge and ideas to address solutions to the challenges faced by the sector.

Maeve Henchion, overall project coordinator, from Teagasc, made a presentation to provide an introduction to the BovINE project and Kevin Kinsella, the Irish BovINE Network Manager, talked about plans to build the network in Ireland. Richard Lynch from Teagasc gave a really interesting presentation on Innovations and Good Practices identified from the EU BovINE partners in 2020.

Working across the four BovINE themes of socio-economic resilience, animal health and welfare, production efficiency & meat quality, and environmental sustainability, Adam Woods, from theIrish Farmers Journal, moderated a very active session which was designed to identifying farmers’ innovation needs for 2021. To facilitate this discussion 5 breakout rooms were set up on Zoom; Tomas Bourke and Anna Daly supported the BovINE team in facilitating these groups.

Kevin Kinsella said: “In our discussions, over 65 clear needs were identified at farm level, which the BovINE project will now take on board and work at finding solutions through the interactive network of farmers, advisors, researchers, vets, and others across the EU.”

BovINE is an EU-funded network project focused on knowledge exchange to help address the challenges and drive the sustainability of the European beef farming sector. The project is connecting with farmers across Europe by providing an open platform – the BovINE Knowledge Hub – where beef farmers, advisers, member organisations, researchers and others involved in the beef sector can exchange knowledge and share experiences to drive awareness and on-farm adoption of innovative and proven best practices.

Kevin Kinsella said it was very encouraging to have such a strong support for the first Irish BovINE network event. “As well as a large turnout of beef farmers, we also had strong representation from Teagasc advisers and researchers, agricultural consultants from all across the country and from a wide range of other stakeholders in the sector.

Bovine Project Co-ordinator, Maeve Henchion from Teagasc, said: “This is a unique opportunity for all the cattle farming sector to work together to exchange knowledge and co-create solutions taking advantage of the networking opportunities provided by BovINE”.

Kevin Kinsella told the meeting: “Everybody is very welcome to join our BovINE network and we are looking forward to having on-going engagement with farmers and stakeholders which will be beneficial to the Irish beef sector.”

You can check out the BovINE website at www.http://www.bovine-eu.net/for more information on the overall project and make direct contact with the Irish network atbovine@ifa.ie

For further information please contactKevin Kinsella at 086 2454404