Teagasc researcher aims for us to be world class

Ireland, a world leader in grass-based ruminant production, was the target set by Teagasc Director of Research Dr Frank O’Mara at the recent ICT in Agriculture conference at Kilkenny.

He said genomic selection has increased the rate of genetic gain in the dairy herd by 60%. Ireland will soon have the largest set of genotyped animals in the world (250,000), and a new Science Foundation Ireland-aided project on precision genomics will leverage this data.

He said grass measurement and allocation should be done as precisely as weighing concentrate feeds; there are good tools available, but they must be automated.