Following a meeting between IFA and Teagasc on livestock in Dublin, IFA President John Bryan said Teagasc needs to improve its beef research and advisory programmes in order to support farmers to meet the growth and profit targets set out in Food Harvest 2020.

John Bryan said the beef sector faces very significant challenges at farm level and Teagasc will have to work hard to deliver a blueprint to drive profitability.

On research, John Bryan said as well as focusing on the key issues of grassland and nutrition, more work is needed on bull beef, breeding, meat quality and animal welfare.  Teagasc Director Gerry Boyle recognised the importance of the suckler cow herd and said the targets set down for the Derrypatrick suckler herd in Grange are fully on target.

In addition, Teagasc indicated good progress is being made on sexed semen and this technology should be available commercially within two years.

On the advisory programme, IFA National Livestock Chairman Michael Doran said funding for beef and livestock discussion groups was essential.  He said in light of the beef plan published by the Food Harvest 2020 group, the Government need to move on putting in place funding for discussion groups without delay.

Mr Doran said Teagasc needs to deliver a blueprint in order to achieve the target €1,000/ha gross margin on beef farms.  He said "an improved and more focused advisory service is required to deliver real gains on technical and productivity issues."

Michael Doran said we need to increase the number of livestock farms with a profit monitor and provide them with a 3 to 5 year plan to bring them closer to the €1,000/ha gross margin.