From the Mansion House to an evening with the Boss

If Bruce was a cow, he would definitely rank high on the genetic indexes for health and longevity, mulls Farm Exam columnist Paula Hynes.

Bruce Springstein playing in Cork

This was a busy week both on and off farm as we headed to Dublin on Tuesday for the announcement of €104m euro in government funding for Science Foundation Ireland which will be divided between four SFI research centres, Vistamilk, Biorbic, Future Neuro and I-Form. 

It may have been a wet day in Cork, but the farmer in me checked the weather forecast, and it became a chance to wear a summer dress as we enjoyed glorious sunshine in Dublin. We had lunch with a good friend and strolled to the Mansion House afterwards for the event.

Minister McConalogue announced the funding before a fantastic panel discussion chaired by Kevin Walsh, the head of SFI research centres.

The panel included Dr Triona Kennedy, who is a senior research manager with Stryker; Dr Ronald Halim, assistant professor at the school of biosystems and food engineering in UCD; Colette Daly, who is a member of the public & patient involvement panel at FutureNeuro; and my husband Pete, who was discussing how we have adopted science and research on our farm.

Embracing genotyping ten years ago has led to us fast-tracking genetic gain, which has aided animal welfare, increased production along with longevity in the herd and greater fertility. Health is something that can really be bred into herds to ensure lower scc long-term, less lameness and reduce the risk of TB. The AI bull that we bred, Richard Resilient, is in the top 5% for TB resistance and stands with Munster Bovine.

Professor Donagh Berry of Vistamilk, Kevin Walsh SFI, with Paula and Pete Hynes

Pete made it quite clear that genetics is the key to life and most other research simply ensures we manage those genetics to perform at their best.

Kevin Walsh asked Pete what he wished for the future. Responding, Pete was clear that while we were the first commercial farm in Ireland to feed Bovaer, the research Vistamilk have and will undertake surrounding methane-reducing feed additives is crucial, going on to say that as we have a national genotyping program, it is imperative that methane is looked at from a genetic perspective to ensure farmers breed cows that produce less methane and that “Irish dairy must become a global leader in producing planet friendly dairy”.

Phase II of Vistamilk will see the SFI research centre have four thematic areas represented: soil, pasture, animal and food.

From a soil perspective, the objective is to measure, understand, model and exploit the myriad of benefits of optimum soil biodiversity, health and management in promoting carbon sequestration, ecosystem services, hydrological function and nutrient availability for pasture growth and utilisation. 

The objective with pasture is to acquire, analyse and provide the support to consistently and sustainably grow more pasture of higher quality for animal production, with less negative externalities while all the time requiring less inputs.

The objective is also to acquire, monitor and instigate breeding and management mitigation strategies in animals to address environmental challenges such as methane emissions and nitrogen use efficiency while improving welfare and productivity and reducing antibiotic usage.

Vistamilk's plan for food is to design and implement novel valorisation approaches for dairy through identification, segregation and aggregation of milk from animals with unique fatty acid profiles and soluble phase components linked to diet, and optimal protein composition linked to animal genetics. 

It's a vast amount of research Vistamilk is undertaking up to 2030, which will not only be of huge benefit to the dairy industry and farmers but also be of massive benefit to society. 

I often see the dairy industry come in for criticism from a small minority when it comes to climate change, but it is vital the public and consumer understand and are reassured that there is an enormity of research being undertaken to help dairy farms reduce emissions. 

Agriculture can and will reduce emissions, and while new technologies appear, it is imperative that everything is tested under Irish conditions and within Irish dairy systems and also ensure there is validation to guarantee reductions in emissions.

As farmers, we know we can breed cows that emit less methane, feed cows that emit less methane, store more carbon in our soils, manage grass in new ways, and feed cows in new ways. All of these measures are cumulative, but we need guidance and pathways which Vistamilk can and will deliver.

We have made huge leaps forward over the last decade, and I can see that clearly on our farm; while scientists and researchers work tirelessly to fast-track further improvements, computer power is also improving at a dramatic pace, which will be of further benefit to those scientists.

Just think of how advanced your mobile phone has become in the last 10 years; it takes a lot of computer power to run data on 1.5 million cows at any one time, and now, with the NGP, the fact that so many dairy animals in Ireland have genotype allows for great scope.

Remember those days of watching CSI on TV? That's Crime Scene Investigation, for those of you of a younger generation. The premise of the show was that a scientist would solve a different crime each week in a laboratory. Vistamilk is our DFI or Dairy Farm Investigation, and they will give us solutions to challenges.

It was a late return from Dublin and an early start on the Wednesday to catch up on some work around the farm as we had been kindly given two tickets to see Bruce Springstein and the E Steet band play in Cork on the Thursday. 

It was nice to get a date night with Pete, a bite of grub and a cocktail before we headed to the concert and while it may have been a wet evening in Cork, it didn’t dampen the spirits as Bruce put on an epic performance. 

It really is hard to believe he is 74 years old and performing with his band for 50 years, if he was a cow, Bruce would definitely rank high on the genetic indexes for health and longevity; perhaps we’ll call our next AI bull Springstein. 

Everyone knows Bruce Springsteen is one of the good guys, and he genuinely is; the fame never got to him, and he remembers where he started. We only got the free tickets as he was extremely generous to someone we know.

It was a shame we hadn’t backstage passes, though, as I could have done with roping 'the Boss' into helping us with out with the milk recording session early the next morning!