Planning for performance

The events will be focused on parasite and winter-feeding strategies for beef and sheep farmers.

Anthelmintic Resistance (AR) is becoming widespread throughout the ruminant industries and targeted selective treatment offers the potential to reduce the use of anthelmintics on farm, and in turn reduce the instance of AR. Whilst TST has been found to be successful during research trials, uptake on commercial farms remains limited.

Dr Eric Morgan (QUB) will present an introduction to targeted treatment of anthelmintics alongside members of the Anthelmintic Targeted Selective Treatment (TST) EIP project who have been trying out TST approaches on farm over the past two grazing seasons. He will be followed by Paul Crawford with an update on the Northern Ireland Sheep Scab programme.

Farmers are facing significant challenges this winter with the large increases in input prices. Added to this, conditions for silage making in the early part of the season were challenging and early indications are that silage quality on many farms is well below average. CAFRE advisors Dominic Mason and Gareth Beacom will present a range of beef and sheep diet scenarios that farmers may wish to consider over the coming winter. This information will be supplemented with Dr Francis Lively (AFBI) highlighting the long-term impacts of sub-optimal feeding of beef cattle over the winter. The event will then conclude with a panel discussion which will take questions from the audience. For further details and to register visit the AgriSearch or CAFRE websites.