Rearing male dairy calves to bulls could boost exports by €120m

REARING the 320,000 male dairy calves produced annually into bulls could add €120 million to the value of annual Irish agricultural exports, attendees heard at the joint Teagasc and Dawn Meats conference.

The male dairy calves are presently exported live as calves. A bull beef system would be of far greater benefit to the economy, according to experts at the “Dairy Calf To Beef Conference” at the Teagasc Johnstown Castle Research Centre, Co Wexford.

At present, about 160,000 head, or half the male calf herd, are exported before maturing.

Teagasc head of livestock systems research, Padraig French, said: “The national dairy cow herd is expected to increase by 3% per annum from 2011. Some 60% of these cows are bred to dairy sires. The objective is to develop a range of calf to beef systems which are profitable for producers and providing a marketable product for meat processors.”

Teagasc beef experts Pearse Kelly and Paul Crosson outlined how holstein and friesian bull calves can be finished in bull and steer systems generating gross margins of between €900 and €1,100 per hectare.

Paul Nolan of Dawn Meats said: “This joint initiative is important to establish a technically viable blueprint for the efficient and profitable production of bull beef from the Irish dairy herd. The trials at Johnstown Castle, and on a number of commercial farms will produce a technical blueprint that will form the bedrock of all dairy bull production systems.”

The project will look at finishing these animals to beef at age 8, 12, 15, 18 and 22 months of age on different feeding systems.