Donegal conference to focus on hill sheep farming

The Teagasc National Hill Sheep Conference will take place in Jacksons Hotel, Ballybofey, Co Donegal on Wednesday, February 19

The conference will focus on hill sheep production but also on the contribution of hill sheep farms to maintaining and enhancing the uplands environment.

A presentation on ‘Ticks and tick borne diseases of sheep’ will open the conference.

This will be delivered by Colm O’Muireagáin from the Regional Veterinary Laboratory in Sligo.

Cathal Buckley from the Teagasc Rural Economy and Development Programme will speak on ‘Sustainability and public good provision of hill sheep farms’.

He will outline the benefits of having sheep on Irish hill farms and the contribution those farmers make to the public good.

This will lead to a discussion on strategies for maintaining High Nature Value (HNV) Farmlands, which will be facilitated by Darren Carty, drystock journalist with the Irish Farmers Journal.

Eileen McCloskey, a sheep technologist with CAFRE at Greenmount College, Co Antrim, will present a perspective from Northern Ireland.

She will talk about an integrated approach to sheep farming in the hills and uplands.

How can farmers deliver better economic, social and environmental outcomes on their land? Brendan Dunford, manager of the BurrenLife Programme in Co Clare, will speak about supporting farmers to deliver better economic, social and environmental outcomes, drawing on their years of experience with the BurrenLife programme.

Also travelling to Donegal for the conference is Declan Byrne from Wicklow.

He is project manager of the Sustainable Uplands Agri-environment Scheme (SUAS) in Wicklow. SUAS is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Project.

Another EIP project is The Inishowen Uplands European Innovation Partnership (EIP) Project and Henry O’Donnell from Clonmany, Co Donegal will outline to the farmers attending the conference how it operates and what it can contribute.

The conference will conclude with a question and answer session and a panel discussion, with Eileen McCloskey, Brendan Dunford, Declan Byrne and Henry O’Donnell all contributing.

The conference runs from 6pm to 9pm, is free to attend, and all are welcome.

For more information see www.teagasc.ie/hillsheep20.