IFA President, Joe Healy, has told Agriculture Minister Michael Creed that he needs to prioritise live trade in order to double export numbers in 2019.

Reducing livestock numbers is of course likely to be much easier politically than, for example, asking the French people to pay more for fuel, writes Stephen Cadogan.

Anything that encourages a higher level of environmental awareness and responsibility is to be welcomed.

It costs €1.19 to bed a 200kg suckler calf for a week, with straw priced at €25 for a 150kg bale.

Farmers with a magnet in their diet feeder know how much hardware contamination there can be in feed.

Still no major increase in temperatures but it looks like there is the promise of double figures by next week. Even if some weather models are predicting a white Easter!

Irish livestock has among the lowest antibiotics use in the EU, veterinarian Fergal Morris told the MSD Animal Health conference in Dublin.

IFA National Pigs Committee Chairman Pat O’Flaherty said continental demand has helped push prices ahead again this week.

The supply of cattle to beef factories is increasing and prices have come under pressure this week, somewhat earlier in the season than had been expected.

Lamb producers are feeling more pain this week after processors carved 20 cents/kg more off their returns, continuing the recent market trend.

New electronic data displays in livestock marts are to be grant aided, it was revealed yesterday.

Some of the people attending the 150 or so rural shows across the country during the next six months might wonder at times about what is really happening in the horse and cattle rings.

Livestock water consumption will be an increasingly important factor in global assessment of agriculture’s environmental impact, says Italian agri-industry group Carni Sostenibili.

COP21 recently agreed targets to keep global warming below 2 degrees and the EU has formally set a 2030 target of reducing emissions by 40%, with member state targets not yet agreed.

A man has been arrested by officers investigating the theft of €100,000 worth of livestock in West Meath.

A reward of €10,000 is being offered for information about one of the largest ever thefts of livestock in the State

The Minister for Agriculture said it will be a challenge for Ireland to cut its carbon emissions without cutting food production.